Interpol issues red-corner notices for NRI woman, aide

RAJKOT: Three months after the abduction and murder of a 12-year-old orphan boy and his brother-in-law, the Interpol has issued a red-corner notice against London-based NRI Aarti Dhir and Kanwaljit Raizada who had hatched the murky conspiracy of adopting orphans, insuring them for a big sum and then eliminating the children to claim the insurance money.
Junagadh local crime branch (LCB) had written to Interpol sometime back to issue the red-corner notice against the duo. D B Barada, investigating officer, told TOI that the Interpol has now informed us that Dhir and Raizada have been located in London.
Dhir, Raizada and another accused Nitin Mund had adopted 12-year-old boy Gopal Ajani from Rajkot. On February 8, Gopal, his elder sister’s husband Harsukh Patel and Mund were returning to Maliya from Rajkot after his visa formalities. However, according to the plan, Mund asked the driver, Mahadev, to stop the car midway on the pretext of vomiting. Patel also got down to relieve himself. In the meantime, two persons on a motorbike came near the car and tried to kidnap Gopal. Patel rushed to rescue him but one of the assailants stabbed him. The other person took Gopal on the bike and stabbed him too and both assailants fled.
Gopal died during treatment at the Rajkot civil hospital and few days later Patel also succumbed.
Later, Mund was arrested from his house in Ramnagar area of Rajkot and the two hired assailants were also nabbed.
Investigation by Keshod police revealed names of Dhir (53) and Mund (27), both natives of Gurdaspur in Punjab, and Kanwaljit Raizada, a resident of Keshod. Mund and Raizada were studying together in London and were sharing a room there. Aarti was their neighbour and worked in a watch showroom. The trio had been hatching this conspiracy since 2015 when they met in London
Raizada was tasked with finding an orphaned child for adoption. Mund had returned to India after his UK visa expired.
As Gopal was living in Maliya-Hatina, Raizada got in touch with Patel. After his parents died, Gopal grew up in their house. Aarti had also visited Keshod in July 2015.
After the adoption formalities of Gopal were completed, they had taken a life insurance of Rs 1.3 crore for the boy. The insurance money was to be shared among the three in proportion to the premium they contributed. They had also paid two premiums of Rs 13 lakh each, investigation revealed.
Mund had given the contract killers Rs 5 lakh to eliminate Gopal.