NRI couple adopted boy, got him killed for insurance claim

A Non-resident Indian couple from London allegedly got their 11-year-old adopted son killed to claim life insurance worth Rs 1.3 crore,thegujaratpolicehavesaid. Gopal Sejani died on Monday at a Rajkot hospital days after he kidnapped and stabbed. The police saidthatthecouple,kanwaljitsinh Raizada, 28, and Aarti Loknath Dhar, 53, had plotted the murder alongwithonenitishmundabout two years ago. The three have been booked for murder, attempt to murder and kidnapping.

“The FIR has been filed against three persons, including the London-based couple. We are interrogating Mund to find out more evidence before we go ahead with the procedure to extradite the couple,” police inspector A V Tilva, who is investigating the case, told The Indian Express. “Our primary investigation suggests that they purchased life insurance cover and all of them bore the cost equally.’’ He said that Mund was arrested on Monday and remanded in police custody for six days. Mund, an NRI from Punjab who lives in Rajkot, is learnt to have told the police about the couple’s contract marriage.

Raizada is from Maliya in Junagadh, where Sejani lived with his sister and brother-inlaw, Harsukh Patel, after his father died and mother remarried. Sejani had five siblings.

Junagadh Superintendent of Police Nilesh Jajadia told The Indian Express that Patel had adopted Sejani a few years ago. Mund initiated Sejani’s adoption process in 2015. Mund had lived as a tenant at Dhar’s apartment in London.

Jajadia said that the couple notarised an adoption deed in July 2015. “The next month, they purchased the insurance (in the boy’s name) and paid the (Rs 13 lakh) premium. Their plan was to eliminate him after a year so that they could claim the insured sum,’’ he said. “But Sejani’s passport could not be made since the adoption procedures had not been followed,’’ he said. He added that they had to pay the second premium of Rs 13 lakh.

Jajadia said that the three waited until February 9 when two men, whom Mund had hired, attacked Sejani and Patel. “We have only basic details of the case as of now. But all the evidence and the statement of Mund suggest that he was murdered for the insurance money.’’

Jajadia said that the couple had not followed the adoption procedure at all. “We do not have much of the evidence as of today but prima facie, it seems that the adoption was merely to lure Sejani’s legal guardian.’’

Sejani was picked up on February 9 while he was on his way back to village along with Patel, one Mahadev and Mund. The boy was stabbed multiple times and left to die along a highway in Keshod. An auto-rickshaw driver found Sejani and took him to a Keshod hospital before he was shifted to Rajkot.

Jajadia said that Raizada’s father, Mahendra, knew Patel. “When Mahendra told Patel about the adoption plan, Patel readily agreed for better prospects for the boy. Mahendra has been cooperating in the investigation and it is he who gave us the so-called adoption deeds.” (INPUTS FROM RITESH GOHIL)