Seven months after one Fardeen Vora Takhtiwala (19) allegedly disappeared from Dabhoi in Vadodara district after attempting to elope with a minor girl from his neighbourhood, the Gujarat High Court on Thursday directed the Vadodara Rural Police Commissioner to direct investigation into the case and trace the youth by July 11, the next date of hearing on the habeas corpus petition filed by his mother in February this year.
The bench comprising Umesh Trivedi and CM Roy was hearing the habeas corpus petition filed by Fardeen Vora Takhtiwala’s mother, Nasrinbanu Takhtiwala, who alleged that the father of the girl “with whom Fardeen Vora Takhtiwala was in love” kidnapped her son on November 21, 2023.
Commenting on the investigation conducted by the police, the court said, “Other than filing one report after another, the investigating officer has not done anything fruitful on the missing person report… From the records of the investigation conducted so far, we cannot accept the manner in which the investigation is going… The statement of the girl with whom the body was last found and that of her father seem to contradict each other… So many things seem to be left unmentioned in the two statements which would have been effectively investigated by the IO. There seems to be no zeal to find out…”
The court directed Vadodara SP Rohan Anand to supervise the investigation and produce the corpus (Fardeen Vora Takhtiwala) by July 11. The court said, “Hence, SP Vadodara (Rural) is hereby directed to supervise the investigation of the present case and ensure that the investigation goes in the right direction and leads to the right result. SP Vadodara (Rural) is directed to ascertain the corpus without fail and produce it before this court not later than July 11, 2024.”
In the petition, Nasrinbanu Takhtiwala stated that the family “has been regularly enquiring about the whereabouts of the corpus (Fardeen) but have not received any satisfactory response from the officials of Dabhoi police station other than mere hope.” The petition is directed against the police inspector of Dabhoi police station, the Vadodara police commissioner and the father of the minor girl with whom Fardeen Vora Takhtiwala was allegedly last seen on November 21, 2023.
Fardeen Vora Takhtiwala was an employee of a private company in Mundra in Kutch and was visiting his family during the holidays. The minor girl was a neighbour of his and according to the petition in the Supreme Court, the two were “in love”. In the petition, Nasrinbanu Takhtiwala stated that on November 18 – three days before his disappearance – Fardeen Vora Takhtiwala was “attacked” by five or six persons in Gopalpura area and called his brother Faizan Takhtiwala for help. “When the family members visited the said place, they found the body lying near the bus stand and it was taken to his aunt’s house in Sankheda (in Chhota Udepur district) on November 19. He returned to his house in Dabhoi (in Vadodara district).”
The petition further states that on the evening of November 20, at 5.30 p.m., Fardeen Vora Takhtiwala left the house on a scooter and told his mother that he would be “back in ten minutes.”
The petition states: “After that, about 15 to 20 minutes later, the defendant (the father of the minor girl) visited the house (of Nasrinbanu) and informed that the defendant had run away with his daughter and threatened the plaintiff and other family members to return his daughter to him within 12 hours… On the night of November 21, 2023, the plaintiff’s neighbor was informed… that the (father of the minor girl) had left in his car to look for his daughter and Fardeen…”
The petition states that on November 21, 2023, at 7.30 am, the father of the minor girl called the father of Fardeen Vora Takhtiwala to his house where his minor daughter was present. “The (father of the minor girl) handed over the damaged mobile phone to Fardeen and when asked about the whereabouts of the corpus, replied by informing that the corpus was left behind by his daughter and his scooter was lying near Gola Gamdi canal (in Sankheda taluka of Chhota Udepur district). The scooter was found there but the corpus could not be found…”
The missing person’s complaint in the case was registered at Dabhoi police station on the evening of November 21. The petition further states that Nasrinbanu Takhtiwala along with the minor girl and her father were taken to Gandhinagar for questioning on January 10 and 11, 2024, where they were “interrogated both verbally and with the help of a machine”.
