How Jethwa murder accused took to crime

Shailesh Pandya, 36, arrested by the Mumbai Police on Tuesday for his alleged involvement in the killing of Right to Information activist Amit Jethwa in Gujarat earlier this year, was a school teacher who turned to crime.

Shailesh Pandya, 36, arrested by the Mumbai Police on Tuesday for his alleged involvement in the killing of Right to Information activist Amit Jethwa in Gujarat earlier this year, was a school teacher who turned to crime.

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He did so after his girlfriend, a fellow teacher at the local village school died under mysterious circumstances.

Pandya decided to avenge the death of his girlfriend and attacked four of her relatives with a pistol in November 2008.

“He was a teacher at a village school and fell in love with Surekha Rabadi who also used to teach there but Pandya was married and had children. So their relationship was opposed by Surekha’s family,” said senior police inspector RS Agarwal of Unit 5 and added that Surekha Rabadi had committed suicide.

Pandya, however, suspected that her relatives had murdered her so he attacked four of them in November 2008. All four persons survived and Pandya was charged with attempt to murder.

Unit 5 of the crime branch arrested Pandya for being in possession of a country-made revolver, its four rounds, a country-made pistol and its three rounds. “The seized pistol is the same one which was used in the incident that took place in November 2008,” Agarwal said.

Pandya who also goes by aliases like Sanjay Rabadi, Ajit and Kaka Rabadi, is a resident of Patan in Gujarat, has been booked under the Arms Act.

He and a man named Pachan Shiva (arrested by Gujarat Police in August) had allegedly shot Jethwa near the Gujarat High Court in Ahmedabad.

Jethwa was believed to have been killed as he was campaigning against alleged illegal mining in the Gir Sanctuary area in the Saurashtra, which is allegedly backed by some politicians.