Ahmedabad: A witchdoctor‘s alleged murder spree, which claimed 12 lives including his own family members, could have been stopped if only cops had properly investigated the earlier complaints, according to senior police officials. The suspect, Navalsinh Chavda, 42, died in the police custody on Sunday after reportedly confessing to killing even his mother, grandmother and uncle. Sarkhej police, now under scrutiny following Chavda’s death in custody, said in its statement that closure summaries were filed by police stations in four of the 12 cases.
In one case from Aug 2021, Vivek Gohil, a resident of Nikol, was found dead near Kamod village after Chavda allegedly promised to quadruple his money through a ritual. Despite a postmortem report indicating the presence of sodium nitrite in Gohil’s body, Aslali police classified it as a road accident and closed the case.
Surendranagar B division police also allegedly failed to thoroughly investigate the deaths of the Patadia family — Dipesh, his wife Prafulla and their daughter Utsavi. Their bodies were discovered in the Dudhrej canal in March 2023. Despite family members pointing to Chavda’s involvement, authorities neither arrested him nor pursued the investigation.
In May 2024, three members of the Mukasam family in Paddhari, Rajkot, were found dead in an autorickshaw in what police initially ruled as suicide. Chavda later allegedly admitted to forcing them to write suicide notes. In Oct 2024, Paddhari police closed the case. However, last week, Chavda told Sarkhej police that he had killed and dismembered even Nagma Mukasam, the daughter of two victims, a case that remained unreported until his confession.
The string of overlooked cases also includes the suspicious death of a priest in Anjar, Kutch.
