Kheda Ayurvedic syrup deaths case: 2 accused with previous crime history nabbed in Vadodara

Dec 05,2023

The Vadodara police on Monday nabbed two men who were on the run after being named in the FIR on December 1 in connection with the recent deaths of five people after allegedly drinking spurious Ayurvedic syrup in Kheda.

Vadodara City Prevention of Crime Branch (PCB) nabbed Nitin Kotwani and Bhavesh Sevakani, both Vadodara residents and named in similar cases, separately early on Monday as they came back to the city to “meet a lawyer”.

Yuvrajsinh Jadeja, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), Vadodara, said they received a “tip off” that Kotwani was driving to Vadodara from Mumbai and Sevakani was flying into the city from New Delhi to meet their lawyers.

The Vadodara PCB intercepted Kotwani’s car at the Jambuva junction on the highway and took him into custody and nabbed Sevakani as soon as he alighted at Vadodara airport, Jadeja said.

Jadeja said, “After their names cropped up in the FIR registered by the Kheda police, the Vadodara city Commissioner of Police directed teams to nab the accused as they were previously arrested in Vadodara for manufacturing fake sanitisers during the pandemic. They are also accused in another case of spurious Ayurvedic syrup by the Rajkot Crime Branch”.

Jadeja said they questioned their relatives and people associated with them in the past since the two were on the run. Teams of the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB), PCB. and Special Operations Group (SOG) were formed and dispatched to different locations in Maharashtra including Nandurbar, Pune and Mumbai, he added.

“We have learnt that they had escaped to Mumbai together and thereafter separated to hide… We have communicated to the Kheda police that they can come and take custody of the two accused. Kheda Superintendent of Police will send a team of officers from the district to complete the process of arrest.”

The FIR filed at the Nadiad Rural Police Station on Friday (December 1), based on the complaint of police inspector D N Chudasma, has named five people as the accused.

Syrup supplier Yogesh Sindhi, provision store owner Narayan alias Kishor Sodha and his brother Ishwar, and Kotwani and Sevakani, the syrup distributors who handed over the batch of bottles to Sindhi, have been booked in the case.

The Kheda police Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is investigating the case, has said the syrup bottles had fake manufacturing and marketing labels and the contents printed on the bottles were misleading, prompting sections of forgery to be invoked against the accused in the FIR.

Source: Indianexpress