Rajkot: Lalpur police have cracked the murder and robbery of a 66-year-old retired Gujarat Electricity Board (GEB) employee who lived alone in Parekhbag Road in Jamnagar district, arresting a 25-year-old man and detaining a minor accomplice aged 16 years and nine months.The accused allegedly hatched a conspiracy and took advantage of the elderly man’s isolation to kill him and rob his house. Police have recovered cash, nine silver bars weighing nearly 5kg and other valuables worth a total of Rs 11.49 lakh.The main accused, Akshay Moyda, was arrested with the help of the Local Crime Branch’s technical team and Railway Police in Maharashtra, police said.The victim, Mansukh Vachhani, lived alone while his wife Pushpa and son Ketan resided in Ahmedabad.The crime came to light on Oct 12, when Gopal Makadia, who runs a ganthiya shop opposite Vachhani’s house, alerted the victim’s younger brother, Mahendra, that the house’s doors had been open since the afternoon. Vachhani had not been seen outside, and the lights inside the house were switched off.Mahendra and Makadia went to the house and entered it. They found belongings scattered in the first room on the upper floor. Vachhani was lying on a sofa with a bedsheet covering him. On checking, they found serious injuries to his head and noticed that he was bleeding. As he did not respond, they immediately informed the police.Vachhani had been struck on the head, causing fatal injuries. With cash and silver ornaments also found missing, police suspected that he had been murdered during a robbery.During the investigation, Mahendra told police that his brother had recently spoken about a young woman hired to clean his house. According to Mahendra, a man named Akshay, who accompanied the woman, had allegedly threatened to implicate Vachhani in a false case and taken money from him. This led the family to suspect the duo’s involvement.Jamnagar SP Ravi Mohan Saini told TOI that the minor and Akshay had met in Jamnagar on Oct 10 and allegedly planned the robbery. On Oct 11, the minor went to Vachhani’s house for domestic work, and Akshay also reached the house where they robbed and killed him.Akshay, a native Mithapur in Devbhumi Dwarka district, worked as a hotel waiter.The seized property includes Rs 98,683 in cash and nine silver bars weighing 4.9kg valued at Rs 10.48 lakh. With other items, the total value of the recovered property stands at Rs 11.49 lakh.
