Pune: 65-year-old ‘kills’ grandson before falling to death

Mangalore Today News Network

Pune, Mar 23, 2016: Sudhir Dagdumal Shah would rarely be seen without his grandson. The 65-year-old would drop Jinay to the bus-stop daily for school, and be there to receive the 10-year-old when he returned. Neighbours at the housing society they lived in, Shanti Nagar in Kondhwa Budruk here, remember seeing them together most evenings as Jinay went out to play.

Early March 19 morning, Shah committed suicide. But before he killed himself, he allegedly strangulated the 10-year-old. In a suicide note that police believe was left by him, Shah wrote he loved Jinay too much to leave him behind.

Claiming he was mentally disturbed, he said, “I will live for next 10 to 15 years. Instead of going to the court all these years, I prefer to die and get rid of this matter forever… I am taking Jinay along with me. I cannot go without Jinay. I have been taking his care. So I have taken the hard decision to take him along.”

Jinay’s father Paresh Shah, 35, has lodged a complaint of murder against Shah at the Kondhwa police station. The family is in shock, with relatives rallying around them to keep curious visitors away.

Shah had been fighting a court case with a relative over their shop in Shirur, 63 km from Pune. The family had an electronic business there that Shah helped run before they wound it up and shifted to Pune a year ago.

On March 18, Paresh returned home around 11 pm. After dinner, he went to sleep in his bedroom along with his wife and daughter. Jinay went to sleep with Shah in the hall.

Around 1.30 am, police say, Shah strangulated Jinay and carried his body to the staircase outside the apartment. He then reportedly jumped to his death from a duct space of the seventh-floor flat.

Some local residents and security guards were the first to see Shah’s body. Another resident saw Jinay lying still on the staircase. They woke up Paresh and other family members.

Police got a call around 4.30 am from one of the residents. When they searched the apartment, they found the suicide note written in Marathi in the apartment. In the note, Shah also wrote that nobody should be held responsible for his death.

Neighbours at the largely Jain housing society have told police the Shahs were a friendly family and had adjusted to their new surroundings in Pune easily.

The neighbours also recall noticing how caring Shah was towards Jinay. “The grandfather was a gentleman and would talk to all the people in the building, and the grandson would always be with him,” says a neighbour.

“Jinay went to a school nearby. He was a bright child and good in all activities,” says a close friend of the family who did not want to be named. Shah would “meticulously” drop and pick him up from his school bus-stop, the friend adds, reiterating they were very close.

The Shahs had recently been to Pabal to a Jain temple and were due to leave for a trip to Rajasthan. The friend says they would frequently visit holy places. “They are in a state of shock,” he adds, saying there were no fights at home and they couldn’t have imagined such a thing happening.

Senior inspector Rajendra Mokashi says they have little doubts Shah killed Jinay and then committed suicide. “Further probe has corroborated the sequence of events we established on the first day… search, we found another note by Shah talking about ending his life. This note was written sometime in December.” Police believe Shah didn’t go ahead with the suicide then as there was a family function coming. “The reports of the post-mortem examination of the two also confirm our theory… thus primarily removing other possible theories,” Mokashi adds.