Vadodara: Five years after his partner vanished from Karjan, a court has sentenced a former police inspector to life imprisonment for her murder. The case, cracked by Ahmedabad crime branch within days of taking over the probe, ended with convictions for two men, with the accomplice having helped dispose of the victim’s body.An additional sessions court in Karjan sentenced former Vadodara Rural special operations group inspector Ajay Desai to life imprisonment for the murder of 37-year-old Sweety Desai. His accomplice, Kiritsinh Jadeja, was sentenced to five years in jail.In June 2021, Ajay and Sweety were living together in Karjan and had a two-year-old child. Sweety suddenly went missing. Her brother, Jaydeep Patel, approached Karjan police, after which a missing person’s complaint was registered. The case saw little progress for 45 days.Advocate Bhaumik Shah, who represented Patel, had said that the missing person’s complaint suggested that Sweety had left home of her own accord because she was upset. A month after her disappearance, the then Vadodara Rural superintendent of police directed the then deputy superintendent of police to investigate the matter.The investigation was later transferred to Ahmedabad crime branch by the then Gujarat director general of police on July 18, 2021. Officers solved the case within three days. Sweety’s body was recovered from Atali village near Dahej in Bharuch district, and Ajay Desai and Jadeja were arrested after evidence linked them to the murder.Investigators found that Ajay killed Sweety because she repeatedly urged him to divorce his wife, Pooja, and marry her. He strangled her and took the body to Atali village, where her remains were cremated with Jadeja’s help.Investigators traced the mobile phone locations of Ajay and Jadeja to Atali on the day of the murder.Public prosecutor Ramesh Gyanchandani argued that the accused had committed a heinous crime and deserved the maximum punishment. The court imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh each on Ajay Desai and Kiritsinh Jadeja.
