Man uses online tips to kill father, evade arrest

RAJKOT : The long-standing animosity over a farmland dispute between a farmer and his son took a fatal turn when the son brutally bludgeoned to death the 58-year-old and made a vain effort to evade the police net in the temple town Dwarka.
On Monday, Dwarka police arrested Rajesh Sonagara(35), an assistant electrician with the state-run discom PGCVL, for allegedly killing his father Mohan in the Ladva village, adjoining Dwarka.
Investigation revealed that Rajesh and his father had not been on talking terms for the last 12 years as the latter had refused to give him a share of their ancestral land.
Songara’s younger son Sati found his father’s body on the farm on the night of July 4 and lodged a complaint against unidentified assailants.
As there were no eyewitnesses, it was a challenging case for the police to crack.
“The body was found on a farm and there were no CCTVs installed nearby. We found that Songara had installed electric fencing around his field and some wires had been chopped. This suggested that the assailant had knowledge about electric fences,” said Tushar Patel, investigation officer.
Rajesh’s involvement came under the scanner when Sati told police that his relations with their father had been strained for 12 years and his brother had not visited their house in so many years.
Police then questioned Rajesh who informed them about about his job at PGVCL. The cops then scanned the footage of the CCTV around Rajesh’s house and found that on the night of Ju- ly 4, he was seen heading towards his father’s farm.
The footage also showed that Rajesh was out of his house for the entire night. When probed, Rajesh broke down and confessed to the murder.
Harbouring hatred
Mohan owned 15 acres of land. Two months ago, there was also a fight between the father and son over the division of this land.
Rajesh despised his father so much that he frequently harassed him merely to obtain pleasure. It was not the first time that Rajesh misused his skill of handling electrical equipment when he murdered his father.
He used to often snap the power to the streetlight near Mohan’s house to harass him. Police said Rajesh even used to pelt stones on his father’s house and run away.
Plotting the murder
A few days before the crime, he carried out surveillance near his father’s field by wearing a mask. On the night of the murder, he changed his shirt worn in the day and used some other bike so that he could escape the eyes of CCTVs.
Mohan had gone to the field to keep a watch as he had done sowing after good rainfall. On entering the field, he chopped the electric fences to avoid getting electrocuted if he accidentally touched them.
Seeing Mohan asleep, Rajesh dealt three blows of an iron hammer on his head, killing him on the spot.
Tips on evading arrest from YouTube
Rajkot: Fascinated by TV serials depicting dramatized crime cases, Rajesh learnt how to carry out murder and avoid getting caught.
To destroy evidence, he washed the blood-stained hammer and clothes with water and hid them at his house. The next morning, he went to Jamnagar on the pretext of treatment for hernia.
Thereafter, he pretended to have learned about his father’s murder and rushed to Dwarka. He even participated in the final rites, said inspector Tushar Patel.