Dharmesh Shah asks to attend last rites, cops say no

AHMEDABAD: Dharmesh Shah, 49, the businessman who had shot his wife and two daughters dead on Tuesday morning, wasn’t given permission to attend their funeral by police.
Vastrapur police sources said Shah applied for permission to attend the funeral on Wednesday morning.

Inspector M M Jadeja of Vastrapur police station said Shah’s mental condition is unstable and they could not risk him attending the last rites of his victims.
“If not him, someone else overwhelmed by emotion could have harmed him. Going by the rulebook, we didn’t allow him to attend the funeral of his wife Ami and daughters Heli and Diksha,” said Jadeja.
Shah, a resident of Ratnam Tower in Bodakdev, woke at about 7am on Tuesday. He then shot his wife Ami (48) with his licenced Russian-made pistol while she slept. As the pistol then jammed, he loaded his licenced double-barrel 12-gauge shotgun and shot his elder daughter Heli (24) twice, once in the head.
“The gunshots woke his younger daughter Diksha (17), who then ran towards Heli’s room. She was stopped by Shah who shot her twice with the shotgun as well, one shot struck her in the head and the other hit her arm. Diksha also died on the spot,” said a police official.
Shah, then reloaded the shotgun to shoot himself, but “couldn’t muster the courage to”. He then called one of his oldest employees, Dinesh Prajapati, to tell him about what he had done.
“Prajapati talked to Shah’s brother Viren, via conference call, and they persuaded Shah to not kill himself while they rushed to his home,” a police source said.