2 held for killing Guj lawyer, mastermind flees to Dubai: Cop

Two people were today arrested from the Mumbai metropolitan region for the killing of a senior lawyer in Jamnagar last month, police said.

Senior lawyer, Kirit Joshi, was stabbed to death by two motorcycle-borne assailants near Town hall area of Jamnagar on the night of April 28.

"We have arrested Simon Devinadan (42), a resident of Vasai-East and his accomplice, Ajay Mehta (38), a resident of Andheri-West for the crime. They had taken a contract to kill Joshi from Jayesh Ranparia, who fled to Dubai a week before the incident," said Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, J K Bhatt.

He said that Ranparia had hired the two accused to kill Joshi since the latter was appearing as advocate in four to five cases of land grabbing lodged against Ranparia.

"Jayesh Ranparia has at least 27 cases against his name. He is known for grabbing land by forging documents. To settle any dispute, he used to take huge sums of money from actual land owners. He was arrested last year for making a fake passport. Even the DRI (Directorate of Revenue Intelligence) had raided his premises in the past" said Bhatt.

"Since Joshi was the complainants' advocate in four to five land related cases against Ranparia, the latter had a grudge against Joshi and decided to kill him," said Bhatt.

The senior officer informed that Ranparia had flown to Dubai on a fake passport a week after finalising the deal with Devinadan and Mehta for Rs 50 lakh, out of which, Rs 80,000 had already been paid.