On Saturday evening, Ahmedabad police arrested the main suspect in the parcel bombing case that injured three individuals, police officials confirmed on Sunday.
Rupen Barot (44), a resident of Godavari Apartments in D-Cabin, was detained. He allegedly learned to make bombs and homemade pistols online as part of a revenge scheme against his estranged wife’s colleague Baldev Sukhadia and her father and brother, whom he blamed for his marital separation.
During the arrest, police seized two more bombs, a homemade pistol, ammunition and materials for making weapons.
Barot’s wife Hetal was in the process of seeking legal separation with the case currently in court, according to police sources.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Bharat Rathod stated, “After the explosion of a parcel at Sukhadia’s house in Sabarmati on Saturday morning, we arrested Gaurav Gadhavi at the scene. Using technical surveillance, we tracked down Barot and his accomplice Rohan Raval (21) who were arrested later that night.”
Police recovered two live bombs made from sulphur powder, gunpowder and an electronic circuit that could be remotely detonated as well as a homemade pistol crafted by Barot.
Barot believed that Sukhadia had caused the rift between him and his wife preventing their reconciliation. In the months before the incident, Barot researched bomb-making and weaponry online planning to kill Sukhadia and his in-laws as well as isolate his wife from her family.
Barot and Raval spent months learning how to build remote-controlled bombs using materials such as sulphur powder, blades, batteries, charcoal and gunpowder from fireworks. Barot also learned to craft homemade pistols. Raval, motivated by financial gain, initially attempted to deliver the bomb to Sukhadia’s home on Friday night, but after finding Sukhadia absent returned without making the delivery.
The next day Gadhavi delivered the parcel and Raval remotely detonated the bomb. The duo also planned to target Barot’s father-in-law and brother-in-law in a similar manner Rathod explained.
While pursuing the suspects police discovered two live bombs in a car which were safely defused by the Bomb Detection and Disposal Squad (BDDS) and Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) teams. A homemade pistol was also recovered along with bomb-making materials, firearms and ammunition including five live cartridges, four high-voltage battery cells, three incomplete homemade pistols (single and double-barrel), ten pipes of various sizes, two remote controls, three mobile phones, nails, screws, boxes of blades, gas cylinders and drill machines.
Following this seizure, Barot was named in a second FIR under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Arms Act and Explosive Substances Act.
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