AHMEDABAD: In a chilling tale of greed, betrayal, and bloodshed, builder Himmatbhai Rudani was brutally hacked to death in Ahmedabad. His murder is traced back to a business feud worth Rs 25 crore.
Police cracked the sensational case within hours, arresting three hired killers and the alleged mastermind, Rudani’s former partner, Mansukh Lakhani alias Jackie, who is accused of paying Rs 1 crore in cash and a house to have him eliminated.
The gruesome crime unfolded late on September 13 when Rudani parked his luxurious Car in the basement of Sardar Dham, Nikol, unaware that death was lurking nearby.
As he returned to his car, the attackers, who had been trailing him for days, struck with sharp weapons, slashing him mercilessly in a pre-planned ambush.
Within moments of the killing, the assailants captured photos and videos of Rudani’s lifeless body and sent them to Mansukh Lakhani as a proof that the contract had been executed.
The killers then stuffed the body into the deck of the car, drove it around Ahmedabad in a bid to erase their tracks, and finally abandoned the car near Bridge, six kilometres from the crime scene, before fleeing under the cover of darkness.
The investigation gathered pace rapidly as police teams fanned out across the city and beyond.
By the next day, Odhav Police tracked down the fugitives to Shirohi in Rajasthan and arrested three accused, including a minor.
The key conspirator was identified as Rahul alias Himanshu Harishbhai Rathod, a security guard from Hirawadi in Ahmedabad, who is said to have meticulously plotted every detail of the crime.
His accomplice, Pappu Hiraji Meghwal, a factory worker from Jawahar village near Shirohi, had assisted him throughout, while a juvenile played a supporting role.
During interrogation, a sinister motive emerged.
The roots of the conflict stretched back to 2020, when Rudani and Mansukh’s partnership began to sour amid disputes over massive financial dealings.
Despite repeated attempts at settlement, tensions festered.
The feud reached a boiling point when they agreed on a Rs 25 crore separation deal, but bitterness remained. Initially, Mansukh allegedly gave the same gang Rs 50,000 to break Rudani’s limbs, but when they failed to carry out the attack, he confronted them and decided to take a deadlier route.
This time, he allegedly offered Rs 1 crore in cash and even a house to have Rudani killed.
Confirming the plot, Ahmedabad City I Division ACP Krunal Desai said, "After the killing, the accused sent him photos of the body as proof. While the chats were deleted from Mansukh’s phone, we recovered incriminating conversations from the killers’ devices, which will be sent for forensic analysis.”
In an elaborate attempt to mislead investigators, Rahul planted the murder weapon inside the office in the Hirawadi area, a place where he had earlier worked, before going underground.
However, his plan to divert suspicion quickly unravelled as police pieced together digital evidence, eyewitness accounts, and surveillance footage.
The breakthrough came when investigators arrested Mansukh Lakhani himself within hours, exposing the chilling depths of the conspiracy.
According to police, the killers were familiar with Rudani’s routine and had been stalking him for days, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Their intimate knowledge of his movements made the ambush swift and deadly.