Man who killed MBA student in road rage incident identified as a cop, arrested from Punjab

Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) on Wednesday caught a police head constable for allegedly fatally stabbing a 23 years old MBA student of MICA in a road rage incident. Officials said that the constable, who has a criminal past, was apprehended from Punjab.

On November 11 evening, the second-year MBA student Priyanshu Jain, originally from Meerut, was killed following an altercation in South Bopal in Ahmedabad. He was stabbed multiple times which led to his death. The assailant has been identified as Virendrasinh Padheriya, a head constable posted at Sarkhej police station in Ahmedabad city.

Sources with DCB said that his identity was revealed last night during inspection of CCTV footage collected from nearby localities where the crime occurred. The cops identified the vehicle which led to the revelation of Padheriya's identity. When his location was traced, he was found traveling towards Punjab, officials said. They added that Padheriya had told his family members that he was going for holiday in Punjab.

In 2017, Padheriya along with 12 others was booked by Ahmedabad district police on charges of cheating, criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy and sections of information technology act.

Posted at Satellite police station back then, he was accused of running an international call centre to extort money from the US citizens posing as Internal Revenue Services officers. The trial of this case is still pending at Bavla court in Ahmedabad district. After a brief suspension, he was posted at Narol police station from where he was recently transferred to Sarkhej police station.

On November 11, according to the FIR, he allegedly stabbed Priyanshu Jain multiple times with a knife following an altercation over rash driving. The FIR states that Jain and his classmate Prithviraj Mahapatra had gone out of the campus to give measurements for suits for their upcoming job interviews. They were on a motorcycle.

Jain sitting as a pillion is reported to have objected to the driver of a car who reportedly drove "dangerously" close to them at a turning. Jain is said to have shouted at the driver for driving so fast. After about 100 meters, the car driver followed them and asked Jain what he had shouted about.

The driver, according to the FIR, blamed the MICA students for "driving on the wrong side". The situation escalated as the car driver allegedly pushed Jain who fell on the road. This led to a scuffle between the two. The FIR, based on the statement of Mahapatra, states that the driver reached his car and took out two knives and attacked Jain allegedly with an intention to kill him.

"The driver stabbed Jain multiple times with the knives. When Jain started bleeding, the driver left with the knives in his vehicle. Jain was taken to a nearby Sarasvati hospital with the help of a passer-by. The hospital referred him to Zydus where he was declared dead.

Following the incident, the police had issued a sketch of the suspect who was later identified as Padheriya.