MP man who staged his own death for claiming insurance

The Madhya Pradesh police has arrested Himmat Patidar, a Ratlam district resident who allegedly faked his own death by killing a former employee in cold blood for claiming insurance money.

Patidar (36), an RSS member, was arrested by a team of MP police from Dharmshala in Pratapgarh district of Rajasthan Wednesday, said Superintendent of Police (SP) Gaurav Tiwari.

During interrogation, Patidar told police that he was under a debt of Rs 26 lakh and needed money to repay it, the SP said.

He had taken out an insurance policy of Rs 20 lakh, and thought of faking his death to obtain the insurance amount after watching crime shows on TV, the SP said.

Patidar chose Madanlal Malviya (32), his former employee, as his victim as Malviya's physique matched his own, the SP said.

But before that, he had zeroed in on another person named Kalu, whom he even made have a hair-cut like his own a day before the planned crime, Tiwari said.

However, Kalu did not turn up on the night Patidar had planned to kill him, so at the last moment he picked Malviya.

He took Malviya to his farm outside his village Kamed on the intervening night of January 22-23 and allegedly killed him using a "sharp-edged weapon", the police officer said.

To pass off the body as his own, he dressed the victim in his own clothes and burnt his face.

Initially his plan worked as the police suspected that it was Malviya who had killed Patidar and absconded.

Patidar's mobile phone was found on the body, but its call data had been deleted, which made the police suspicious and order a DNA test to confirm the deceased's identity.

The DNA sample did not match with Patidar's father.

The police then tested DNA samples of Malviya's relatives which resulted in a match, confirming that it was Malviya who was dead.

Though Patidar tried to masquerade the body as his own, he left certain loopholes. He dressed the dead Malviya in his own clothes, but did not change the underpants, the police officer said.

Malviya's wife identified her husband from this piece of garment, Tiwari added.

Patidar was produced in a Ratlam court Thursday which sent him in police custody till February 5.

His brother Sanjay Patidar is district music band chief of the RSS, the police said, adding that the accused himself only attended an RSS shakha but did not hold any post in the organisation.