Guj: Man booked for abandoning son now charged with murder of live-in partner

A man arrested for abandoning his 10-month old son and trying to flee to Uttar Pradesh after killing his live-in partner, who was also the mother of the toddler, has now been booked for murder by Vadodara police, an official said on Monday.

Sachin Dikshit had left his son near a cowshed in Pethapur village of Gandhinagar on Friday night and was fleeing to UP via Rajasthan when police managed to nab him in Kota on Saturday and brought him here, an official said.

However, a probe showed that Diskhit, already married, had killed his live-in partner Mehndi alias Heena Pathani in their home in Vadodara's Bapod area on October 8 before abandoning their child, police said.

Heena's body was found packed in a bag in the kitchen cupboard in the house, with police stating that she was killed by strangulation in an argument with Dikshit after he spoke about wanting to go back to his wife and parents, who stay in Gandhinagar, and shift with them to UP.

"This (murder) is the second FIR against Dikshit. It was registered at Bapod police station in Vadodara. He has already been charged with kidnapping (IPC section 363) and abandoning child (IPC section 317). Gandhinagar police produced him in court in Monday and got his remand till October 14," an official said.

Before being produced in court on Monday morning, Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) experts collected Dikshit's blood sample for DNA matching to establish parenthood, said MK Rana, Deputy SP, Gandhinagar.

Dikshit used to live five days a week with Heena in Vadodara, where he worked, and spent the weekends in his Gandhinagar flat with wife and parents.

He met Heena in 2019 when she was working in a showroom in Ahmedabad, and then after a brief separation, reunited and started living in with her after he got a job in Vadodara, with Shivansh being born in 2020, Inspector General of Gandhinagar Range, Abhay Chudasama, had told reporters on Sunday.