Tiff between two families lead to man who killed friend in 2003 | Mumbai news - Hindustan Times
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Tiff between two families lead to man who killed friend in 2003

ByPayal Gwalani
Jun 04, 2023 04:29 AM IST

The accused, identified as Rupesh Ramnath Rai, 42, kept changing names, travelled across several cities, which made it difficult for the police to trace him.

Mumbai: A tiff between two families led to the arrest of a man who was on the run for 20 years after he allegedly murdered his friend in a hotel near Vile Parle railway station. The accused, identified as Rupesh Ramnath Rai, 42, kept changing names, travelled across several cities and did several odd jobs over the years which made it difficult for the police to trace him.

Rai was arrested on Friday night from a local sweet shop in Thane.
Rai was arrested on Friday night from a local sweet shop in Thane.

Rai was arrested on Friday night from a local sweet shop in Thane.

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On April 3, 2003, Deepak Rathod, 23, was found dead in a hotel near Vile Parle railway station. The prime suspect in the case emerged to be Rathod’s roommate, Rai, as the duo arrived from New Delhi on March 31, 2003, and was staying in the same room since then, said a police officer, adding, “Rai, who was 22-year-old then, became our prime suspect as he was missing.”

Rathod was a newly married man who was trying to start a garment business and was in Mumbai to buy clothes, Paramjit Singh Dahiya, additional commissioner of police, said, adding, “He had brought his friend along. While staying in the hotel, the two men had a disagreement. The accused allegedly killed the deceased with the cutlery provided by the hotel, took 1.3-lakh cash and fled the scene,” he said.

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“Our detection teams kept an eye on the family of the accused over the years, visited his hometown in a remote part of Muzaffarabad, Bihar, more than fifteen times in the past twenty years,” said joint commissioner of police (law and order) Satya Narayan.

During one such visit, a villager approached the current detection team. The villager’s family had some dispute going on with Rai’s, he said, adding, “The villager had overheard a conversation a couple of months ago about the accused working in a certain sweet shop in Thane.”

“After coming back to the city, we visited the store in plain clothes and found one staff member who resembled the accused and detained him for further questioning,” said one of the officers in the detection team from Santacruz Police Station.

Deputy commissioner of police for zone 8 Krishnakant Upadhyay said the accused changed his name to Atul Vijay Kedia while working in the shop. “He had got himself this new identity while he was in Ranchi in 2016. He had previously lived in Pune, Gujarat, Bhiwandi, Goa and Ranchi among other places. During this time, he has worked as a tour guide, a waiter, a salesman and a miner,” he said.

Rai was produced before a court on Saturday and was remanded to police custody till June 6.

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