AHMEDABAD: After he was seduced by Shilpa Panchal, his wife’s cousin, Haresh Panchal (40) allegedly murdered Shilpa’s husband Dilip, whose body was found near Jagatpur in Sola on Wednesday evening with his throat slit, police said on Thursday.

Crime branch ACP Shankar Chaudhary said a team led by inspector V R Malhotra cracked the case on the basis of a CCTV footage of a motorcycle. “We arrested both Shilpa (36) and Haresh for the murder and handed them over to Sola police station for further interrogation,” said Chaudhary.

Malhotra said Shilpa was in a relationship with Gopal Gohil (40), a resident of Bapunagar, for last two years and wanted to get rid of her husband, Dilip, to marry Gohil.

“Shilpa, has who two daughters, aged 17 and 14, first asked Gohil to kill Dilip. When Gohil refused, Shilpa seduced Haresh, the husband of her maternal cousin and a resident of Kalol, to kill Dilip,” said Malhotra.

“Shilpa told Haresh, who is also the father of two children, that if he killed Haresh she would be ready to live as his mistress for the rest of their lives,” said Malhotra.

Haresh, who works at a readymade garments shop in Vadaj, agreed and first tried to kill Dilip three days ago, by calling him to the outskirts of Jagatpur on the pretext of delivering a parcel.

“On that day, Haresh could not muster the courage to kill Dilip. On July 31, Haresh called Dilip again, to the same place, and this time he stabbed Dilip thrice in the throat. Haresh then threw the knife into the Narmada canal and returned home,” said a crime branch official.

Chaudhary said they arrested Haresh near Sola, on the basis of human intelligence and CCTV footage, and brought him to crime branch. “He broke down during interrogation and confessed to having killed Dilip at the instance of Shilpa. We then arrested Shilpa as well,” added Chaudhary.

