Five held in double murder case in Junagadh district

Rajkot: Five persons were arrested on Thursday in a double murder case of Vanthali in Junagadh district.

Police said the accused, identified as Hanif Sida (32), Arif Gambhir (30), Hasan Gambhir (28), Tarmohammed Gambhir (29) and Jusab Sida (25), had allegedly mowed down Yusub Sandhi (25) and Firoz Sandhi (31) to death with a truck on April 29 and tried to disguise the murder as an accident.

“While Hanif, Arif and Tarmohammed were in the truck, Hasan and Jusab were on a bike tracking the location of the victims. When the trio — Yusub and Firoz along with Jabir Sandhi — arrived on one bike, the accused mowed down their bike with the truck. While Yusub and Firoz were killed on the spot, Jabir survived with injuries,” said R K Gohel, sub-inspector with Junagadh local crime branch.

While the accused tried to present the incident as an accident, the family members of Yusub and Firoz suspected foul play and alleged that it was a case of double murder.

“They named the accused as suspects. We tracked the suspects from their location via cellphones. We also took the help of forensic science laboratory experts and checked CCTV footage of the accident. Then, we zeroed in on Hanif, Arif and Tarmohammed whose mobile locations were traced to the spot of the accident and rounded them up from a farm in Bhanduri village of Junagadh taluka,” said Gohel.

During interrogation, the trio confessed to their involvement in the double murder and also revealed the names of their co-accused, leading to the arrests of those as well.

The murder was the result of old enmity between the accused and victims. Though a compromise was reached between them, the people of Galiavad village of Junagadh taluka kept gossiping that Yusub, Firoz and Jabir wanted to kill Hanif. Hearing this, Hanif called Arif and Tarmohammed at his house and hatched a conspiracy to kill the trio. They involved Hasan and Jusab in their plan. The truck used in the crime belonged to Hasan and was being driven by Arif on that day.