Four sentenced to life for murder of man in Ahmedabad’s Khadia

The four men have been convicted by an Ahmedabad sessions court for murder, destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy.

Published on: Dec 19, 2025, 22:15:52 IST

By Maulik Pathak

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Ahmedabad: A sessions court in Ahmedabad on Friday convicted four men for the murder of a 50-year-old man who was beaten to death with baseball bats in the city’s Khadia area in June 2022.

The judge held that the prosecution and the crime branch, which investigated the case, had proven the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. (Shutterstock)

Additional sessions judge BB Jadav held that the four accused formed an unlawful assembly on June 8, 2022, and assaulted Rakeshbhai Sureshbhai Mehta in Hjirani Pol, Khadia, using baseball bats. Mehta collapsed on the spot and was taken to SVP Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

The four -- Montu alias Namdar Sureshchandra Gandhi, Vishva alias Vishu Jigneshbhai Rami, Jayraj Vasudevbhai Desai and Sunil Babubhai Bajaniya -- have been convicted for murder, destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy.

According to the prosecution, the deadly attack resulted from a long-standing dispute. The prime accused, Montu Gandhi, was related to the complainant Pavan Gandhi and had earlier threatened the victim to stay away from the area and his family.

After examining 27 witnesses and extensive documentary evidence, the court concluded that the prosecution and the crime branch, which investigated the case, had proven the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

The court relied on eyewitness accounts, CCTV footage, medical evidence, forensic reports and call detail records to establish the conspiracy and the role of each accused.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maulik Pathak
He is an Ahmedabad-based journalist with more than two decades of experience. His career spans business journalism and general news, with reporting across politics, crime, governance, public policy, business, industry, infrastructure, energy, ports, aviation, the environment, wildlife and social issues. He began his career in feature writing before moving into business journalism, reporting on companies and sectors including energy, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and real estate. Over the years, his work expanded to politics, courts, crime, public policy, civic affairs, the environment and wildlife. His reporting has taken him from government offices and courtrooms to factory floors, ports, forests and remote villages, covering stories that range from industrial investments and financial markets to elections, conservation and issues affecting everyday life. While many assignments demand the pace of the daily news cycle, others require sustained reporting over months and years to follow developments beyond the headlines. He started his journalism career with the Asian Age in Ahmedabad in 2002 as a feature writer and sub-editor. Since 2022, he has been working with Hindustan Times. Earlier, he worked with Business Standard, DNA, The Economic Times, Mint and The Times of India. His longest stint was with Mint, where he spent more than eight years reporting across multiple beats. During his career, he has worked in both reporting and editing roles, contributing to page planning, local editions and special editorial projects as newsrooms evolved from print-first operations to digital publishing. Early in his career, he also worked on media and documentary projects with an NGO and as a copywriter at a communications agency before returning to journalism. Away from work, he sometimes makes time for a pair of binoculars, table tennis, cinema and the occasional poem.Read More

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