Solving Crime: When Mumbai cops stumbled upon a love story that turned a school headmaster into a contract killer
In August 2010, Mumbai Crime Branch Unit-5 officers arrested Shailesh Pandya, alias Sanjay Rabadi, from the Kurla area, suspecting his involvement in a murder case in Gujarat. Pandya was accused of killing a high-profile RTI activist, who was campaigning against illegal mining, by opening fire at him outside the Ahmedabad High Court.
The Gujarat Police had arrested five key accused in the case, but Pandya had managed to dodge the police and flee the state. Crime Branch sources said that Pandya showed no remorse for his actions, but what shocked them was his origin story: how a twist of fate had turned an ordinary school headmaster into a contract killer.
During the investigation, the police learnt that Pandya, who hails from Baspa village in Gujarat's Patan district, used to work as a headmaster in a primary school a few years before his arrest. Here, he allegedly fell in love with a fellow teacher. However, Pandya's affair with the teacher did not go down well with the villagers, as he was already married with two kids. Pandya and the teacher also hailed from different castes.
According to the police, Pandya eloped to Bengaluru with the teacher. However, two months later, after her family filed a complaint, the Gujarat Police traced the couple and brought them back. Pandya was allegedly put behind bars in a fake case, and this upset the teacher, who allegedly died by suicide.
It was when he walked out on bail that Pandya learnt about her death. Suspecting that she was murdered by her family members, in November 2008, Pandya allegedly opened fire on four people – two relatives of the teacher, his relative, and a villager. Later, one of these victims succumbed to their injuries, the police said.
Running away from the police, Pandya went to Rajasthan, returned to Gujarat, and later arrived in Mumbai. Here, he allegedly got addicted to gambling, lost whatever money he had left, and returned to his hometown.
It was back home that he allegedly met a police official, who offered him money to kill the RTI activist—a decision that sealed his fate and landed him in the Mumbai police's net.
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