Convict who beheaded Gujarat trader, jumped parole, held after 12 years on run
In October 1994, Satish Himmatlal Rupa Relia and Rajan Panchal lured textile trader Arvind Shah from Ahmedabad’s Kalupur to Neelam Hotel in the city’s Shahibaug area on the pretext of a discounted silk deal, asking him to bring cash. The two took Shah to a room and tried to rob him of gold rings, a chain, and cash at knifepoint before stabbing him around 30 to 35 times and killing him when he resisted and tried to snatch their knife. Satish Himmatlal Rupa Relia, the convict, in police custody. (X) Relia and Panchal severed Shah’s head with a sharp weapon to prevent identification, put it in a bag, and disposed of it in Gandhinagar’s Adalaj area, leaving the headless body in the hotel room. Shah’s son would identify the body through clothes, ornaments, and a surgical scar. In April 2000, a sessions court convicted Relia of murder, robbery, and criminal conspiracy and sentenced him to death. The Gujarat high court commuted the sentence to life imprisonment in 2001. Relia, who was also sentenced to five …
