Who Murdered Sale
Traces of kerosene were present in the lungs of the late Salesh Chand - the Vinod Patel & Company Ltd regional manager whose charred remains were found inside the company car he used.
This meant that Mr Chand was still alive before the vehicle was burnt, a Police source close to the investigation told Shine A Light.
The source said he had inhaled the smoke from the inflammable liquid.
The charred frame of the maroon SUV was found parked at the Fiji Sugar Corporation compound in Lautoka on July 5, 2016.
The informed source said Mr Chand was heavily intoxicated and incapable of escaping the fire. He suffered 100 per cent total body surface area third degree burns.
The smell of kerosene was also detected inside the car, the informed source said. It was also used to set the car alight, the source said. Police had classified the case as murder. But they remain mum on the progress of the investigation. It’s now more than four years, no arrests have been made. The killer or killers still roams free.
The informed Police source labelled the murder of Mr Chand as “well-planned”.
Mr Chand was 42.
CHARRED BODY FIND
It was about 3am on Wednesday July 5, 2016.
The scene was gruesome, a close neighbour of the family, who spoke on the condition of not being named, said. She was on her way to the market when when she saw a crowd at the scene – along the tramline at the FSC compound. Nothing but his bones and organs were visible, said the neighbour. Police officers had cordoned off the crime scene. Only the frame of the vehicle was left standing. Mr Chand’s wife, Ranjni Devi, said she identified her husband’s body the following day, on Thursday at around 5:30pm.
She couldn’t recognise her husband’s face. The lower part of his body was covered with a white sheet.
Mr Chand’s ribs were visible. His skin and flesh were gone.
“Half of his hand, from his elbow to his fingers, it was missing. I was really shocked.”
She only recognised the nine karat gold chain and locket he was wearing. It was her birthday gift to him.
“I could also tell it was him because of the shape of the back of his head,” she said.
Ms Devi recalled that her husband and his workmates drank a basin of grog before she went to bed at 9:45pm. She was oblivious to what transpired after that.
THE DAY OF THE INCIDENT
It was like any other normal weekday for the Chand family.
“We were happy,” Ms Devi called.
Mr Chand had dropped his wife at her workplace, Danam Fiji Limited – a garment factory in Lautoka and later his children to school.
One of their sons was in Year 12 reat the time and the other in Year 10. Mr Chand was a family man and a good person. His only weakness was alcohol, Ms Devi said.
The previous Sunday (3/07/2016), the family had gone to Tavua to buy meat and fish.
Ms Devi later fried fish, while Mr Chand drank beer.
This was his normal routine. He would drink six stubbies every weekend. His favourite drink was Fiji Gold beer, Ms Devi said.
That Tuesday night, he had arrived home with two of his workmates – a man and a woman. The man has been taken in for questioning several times, according to the Police source.
Shine A Light has chosen not to identify him for legal reasons. Ms Devi and his sons were at their uncle’s place.
“My husband came to pick us up. He then introduced us to his two staff ‘this is my wife, these are my two kids, a small and happy family. My kids play tennis, my wife is working’,” Ms Devi said.
Ms Devi recalled that her husband and his workmates drank a basin of grog before she went to bed at 9:45pm.
She was oblivious spired after that.
“When I woke up, I saw half a bottle of Regal Gin, a bottle of wine and three beer stubby bottles.”
The man and her husband were nowhere to be seen. The woman was in the house.
“The woman said she only had a few glasses of alcohol and went to to what transleep.”
Ms Devi said her husband hardly drank hard liquor. One of his sons Ravnil saw the man giving more alcohol to his father.
At around 1:30am, Ravnil noticed that his father was too drunk. He kept falling while trying to stand up at their porch.
He recalled his father sitting in the passenger seat while his workmate drove the car.
Ms Devi said if her husband was too drunk, he wouldn’t have been able to drive the car out of their
steep driveway.
She was worried. She called her husband’s phone twice at around 2am.
“He told me he was going to Ba. I told him not to lie because the car wasn’t moving.”
His last words were “Ok, I’m coming”.
But it wasn’t long before his workmate returned in another vehicle. “As soon as he entered, he had asked if my husband had arrived, I said no. When I asked where my husband was, he said he went to Ba,” Ms Devi said.
“He then pestered me to give my phone to him so he could call my husband; I told him that his phone was unreachable. I did not give him the phone.”
Ms Devi became more anxious. Around 5:30am, Police knocked at their front door.
“First, they asked me where my husband was, I told them he wasn’t home. A Police officer then went to see my husband’s workmates inside the house and took them.”
She was later contacted by an employee of Vinod Patel at around 9:30am and told that her husband’s car was burnt down.
The caller said Mr Chand wasn’t in the car.
“I was told he was injured and in hospital, and that I can go and see him after 2pm or 3pm after the doctor has seen him,” she recalled. One of the back pockets of his pants was salvaged from the burnt vehicle. The Lautoka Police had shown this to Ms Devi.
“I told them the piece of the back pocket belonged to my husband. But I didn’t know that my husband had passed away.”
It was only when her family and friends started building a shed at her home later that Wednesday when she realised something was amiss.
“My sister then hugged me and told me what had happened.”
CO-WORKERS
$5000 Is the reward that Ms Devi and the family are willing to give to anyone who could provide information that would lead to the arrest of her husband’s murderer.
The workmate was the last person known to be seen with Mr Chand. They went to buy liquor together at the popular “Corner Shop” in Lautoka.
Shine A Light spoke to the man, but he was reluctant to divulge any information. He worked with Mr Chand during the Help for Home Initiative for victims of Tropical Cyclone Winston that struck Fiji early February 2016.
Vinod Patel & Company Ltd was one of the hardware companies selected as shopping locations for the “Help for Homes Initiative” recipients.
He said he only knew Mr Chand during that short period of time. They travelled together to villages in Rakiraki and Ba.
“We were together at work until when that night when he was later found dead,” he said.
“I’ve already admitted that to Police.
“We were working in Ba and then we came to his home. We were drinking grog and then we drank alcohol. We then went again to buy
alcohol because he (Mr Chand) wanted to buy alcohol again.” He said Mr Chand had left him at the liquor shop.
“He then went, that was it, and we never got in touch again. I didn’t know what else happened after that.”
The man said Mr Chand was talking to someone on his phone that night.
“I can’t stop him or disturb him because he was my superior. He was a good man, and was very sociable.”
The man was a former employee of Vinod Patel & Company Ltd before he rejoined the company.
“I left and went overseas, and then returned and worked again. There was no problem at work when I decided to leave.”
He is no longer employed at Vinod Patel & Company Ltd.
The workmate’s daughter recalled
her father telling his family what had occurred that day.
“Mr Chand had asked my father if they could go together to his home in Lautoka,” she said.
“My father said Mr Chand wanted to drink alcohol after they had consumed grog.
“My dad said he had told him to just wait for the next day to buy beer because it was in the middle of the night.
“Then my dad told him that he should drive because he was drunk, but then he insisted that he drives, so they went to the liquor shop, known as Corner Shop.
“My dad then got off to go and ask whether they could still buy drinks, but they said the shop’s closed.
“My dad said when he returned, the vehicle was gone.”
He had asked the security guard, and the security said that Mr
Chand had answered and then drove off.
My dad then called Mr Chand using the security guard’s number. “Mr Chand told my dad to wait and that he was coming.
“Instead, my dad caught a ride in his cousin’s vehicle to return to Mr Chand’s home. He used his cousin’s phone again to call Mr Chand, but Mr Chand didn’t answer.”
When Police officers came after 5:30am on Wednesday, they first took my dad and the lady’s phones. “My dad said he didn’t take his phone that night.”
The woman, who was present on the night of the incident, is only known as ‘Lisi’. Efforts to track her down were unsuccessful.
She is no longer employed at Vinod Patel & Company Ltd. She now resides in Nadi.
The workmate’s daughter said the two co-workers were related. They the phone are from different villages in Rakiraki.
KESHWAS MART
Mr Chand was a frequent customer at Keshwas Mart, a licensed liquor seller.
The shop is located along Lautoka’s main street. It is commonly referred to as the Corner Shop. Avitesh Narain Sharma, who knows Mr Chand very well, recalled he bought beer at about 5pm on that Tuesday afternoon.
He was sober. “Mr Chand said hello to me and asked me how I was.” Keshwas Mart is owned by Mr Sharma’s uncle. The shop has a CCTV camera installed outside the shop.
“Police did not obtain the CCTV camera footage from us. We would’ve been happy to help,” Mr Sharma said.
MR CHAND’S WORK
The late Mr Chand was the Retail Manager for Courts Fiji Limited in the Western Division before joining Vinod Patel & Company Limited.
He was an employee of Courts for 23 years. He was first employed as a sales person. He held the position of retail manager for about four years before moving across to Vinod Patel.
Ms Devi questioned her husband why he wanted to join Vinod Patel. He had said it was a good offer, and good money. Accommodation and transportation were provided.
He was the regional manager for Vinod Patel in the Western Division for at least two years before his cruel death.
Ms Devi said her husband earned a monthly salary of about $4000, after deductions. Vinod Patel also paid for the accommodation in Kashmir, Lautoka – $600 monthly rent. The company had ceased paying rent after Mr Chand’s death. Ms Devi had to fork out money from her pocket to pay the rent for six months. She had to do it for her son, who was preparing for an external exam at the time. Employees at the Vinod Patel branch in Rakiraki remember Mr Chand as a hardworking and good man.
“He would work with the boys, helping with the loading and offloading of goods. He would sit with the workers to drink grog and discuss what to do the next day,” Divesh Kumar Achari said. Mr Archari has been employed for Vinod Patel since 2014. Company driver Umen Prasad also worked with Mr Chand at Courts. They’ve known each other for about three to four years. Mr Prasad then moved to Vinod Patel, and Mr Chand decided to later join.
“He was a religious person. We would go to the Pooja together,” Mr Prasad said.
“That day the Pooja was at my place in Rakiraki, I was waiting for him. I didn’t receive any message of his location.
“He told me he’d come and sit at the Pooja, and I prepared 1kg grog.”
Mr Prasad said Police had also interviewed one of the bosses during their investigation. The staff later learned that something had happened to their company vehicle. Ms Devi said Vinod Patel had donated $500 and the coffin box for her husband’s burial.
A colleague from Suva took over the Regional Manager role based in Rakiraki.
KASHMIR HOME
Mr Chand’s home was burgled twice. The first was when they lived in Kemo Road, Lautoka.
The second burglary was on January 2016 – six months before the incident. It was a young woman known to the Chand family. Ms Devi said the woman knew where they placed the key. She said the woman’s father worked with her husband at Courts.
The man later got a job as a driver at Vinod Patel after Mr Chand made him a good offer. They were friends and used to drink grog together, Ms Devi said.
Stolen items included two sets of gold rings, Mr Chand’s gold bracelet, about $200 Australian Dollars (F$304.15), perfumes, and iPhone. Ms Devi said one of her son’s had just returned from Australia at the time.
“We lodged a complaint with the Lautoka Police, but none of the items have been recovered. And then my husband was found dead a few months later.”
The home in Kashmir has never been occupied since the family moved to Suva.
STRANGE CALLER
Thirteen days after Ms Devi’s family had cremated her husband in Suva, the family returned to their Lautoka home.
A man then started harassing her over the phone. She said the caller sounded iTaukei, but knew how to speak Hindi.
The stranger called her four times. He used the name “Pupu” – a name that Mr Chand used to call his wife.
“It was a name only he and I knew. He called me that in a funny way,” Ms Devi said.
“The caller said his name was Raju and he lived in Rakiraki. He said not to worry about anything, now that my husband was dead.” The matter was reported to the Lautoka Police Station. Police told her that she needed a Police officer to provide security.
“What I wanted was for them to track the caller. The Police never informed me if they ever tried tracking down the caller.”
The mobile phone number the caller used was 968 5027. Shine A Light had called the number several times, but there was no answer.
FAMILY SEEKS JUSTICE
In their family home in Muanikoso, Mr Chand’s family members are still hoping that justice will take its course.
Ms Devi said there had been no update from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). She had last contacted them a month ago. Police had taken Mr Chand’s underwear, hair brush and trousers for forensic tests.
“Every time, I am told they are close to solving the case,” an emotional Ms Devi said.
Her two sons are now adults. The younger son works as a graphic designer at Courts, while the elder son is still unemployed.
Ms Devi said they were willing to pay more than $5000 to anyone who could provide information that would lead to the arrest of her husband’s murderer.
Questions sent to Police spokesperson Ana Naisoro on Wednesday remain unanswered when this edition went to press.