Patel murder

A month after the murder of 75-year-old Parvez Jamshed Patel came to light the police were grilling the prime accused to ascertain the motive behind the killing. On May 18, 2005 Patel was found murdered at his Indus Court apartment in Bombay’s Churchgate locality. A foul stench emanating from the flat led to the matter being reported to the police. On entering his flat they found his body lying in a pool of blood beside a blood stained frying pan and a towel drenched with blood, it was reported in the next day’s dailies. During police investigation it was found that his neck was strangled with a towel and he had suffered head injuries after being hit by a frying pan.

A former bank manager Patel was reportedly estranged from his first wife Amy and used to live in the Indus Court apartment with Pramodini alias Shilpa Govind Chavan and his cook Jugnu Prajapati. Since both Shilpa and Jugnu were missing from the scene, they were the prime accused. Even though the po-lice tracked down and arrested Shilpa and Jugnu, both were allegedly tight­lipped and not cooperating with the police, according to The Times of India (TOI) of June 7, 2005. When TV actress Smriti Irani’s photograph with Patel and Shilpa was found at the residence she was called in for investigation but she did not seem to know the couple and mentioned that she had only posed with them for a photograph at one wedding.

Initially it was believed that a property dispute could be the motive behind the murder. On looking through his diary which had several telephone numbers the police learnt that Patel was known to lend substantial sums of money to individuals at high interest rates and would insist that his debtors give him post-dated cheques so that he could file a cheque bouncing case if they defaulted. In addition to the paying guest who occupied one of the rooms, the police revealed that Patel also rented one of the four rooms in the flat to couples looking for a private space to meet, notes the TOI report.