In an untoward incident, a man from Gujarat who was undergoing treatment for liquor and drug addiction, was killed after being brutally thrashed by a group of seven people.
According to information, the grisly murder was executed by the manager of the de-addiction centre and seven others who subjected the inmate to horrific brutality lasting nearly 90 minutes.
The deceased man, identified as Hardik Suthar, was killed and cremated and his family was informed that he died of natural death caused by a sudden and drastic fall in blood pressure.
However, the truth was uncovered after police scanned the CCTV cameras of the centre.
The macabre crime came to light two days ago when local police launched an investigation after receiving information about an inmate named Hardik Suthar being killed and his death being passed off as natural.
Suthar was admitted to the Jyona de-addiction centre run by Surat-based charitable trust about six months ago.
"On February 17, Suthar went to the bathroom and tried to slit his wrist. The facility's manager Sandeep Patel and seven to eight other people then tied his hands and legs and brutally thrashed him with a thick plastic pipe for nearly two hours,” said Mehul Patel, inspector, B-division police station, who is investigating the case.
“Of these, two of them even burnt a portion of the pipe with a lighter and poured the hot liquid on Suthar's private parts and burnt his pubic hair," he added.
Patel said Sandeep resorted to such grotesque crime only to establish his hold on the facility. They also warned other patients that they would meet the same fate as Suthar if they threw any tantrums and resorted to anything like the deceased did in the bathroom.
After Suthar died, Sandeep and others took him to a private hospital in their car where the doctor refused to admit him. They kept the body in Sandeep’s car for the entire night and called up Suthar’s uncle the next morning, informing him that he had died to low blood pressure.
Besides Sandeep, police arrested Jitu Patel, Jainish, Gaurav Macchimar, Mahesh Rathore, Jayesh Chaudhary and Nitin Chaudhary.
