8 walk free in Chintan Shah case

Ahmedabad: A city sessions court on Saturday had to acquit all eight accused persons in connection with firing on city-based industrialist Chintan Shah after both sides struck a compromise and all witnesses turned hostile before the court.
In this case, Chintan's wife Janki was suspected to have conspired in the assault through one Dharmesh Shah. But since there was a settlement between Shah and the alleged assailants, Gujarat high court in December 2014 dropped charges of attempt to murder and conspiring to kill her husband against Janki after Chintan pardoned her and declared that he did not want her to be prosecuted.
According to the case details, Chintan was shot at near his residence in Usmanpura on September 27, 2014. Police investigations revealed that the contract to kill him was given by his relative, Dharmesh Shah, a jeweller who allegedly shared a very good rapport with Janki. Cops arrested Dharmesh and the assailants and filed chargesheet against them. But further probe exposed Janki's role in the attack. It was revealed that Dharmesh plotted the attack on Chintan allegedly at the behest of Janki who even gave a tip off about her husband's movement. Janki was a witness in the first chargesheet that the Naranpura police had filed, but the call details analysis suggested that she was the main conspirator and others were instruments. Even Chintan made several applications to police against his wife, but later withdrew them.