In October 1994, Satish Himatlal Rupa Reliya and Rajan Panchal lured textile merchant Arvind Shah from Ahmedabad’s Kalupur to Hotel Neelam in the city’s Shahibaug area on the pretext of a discount silk deal, and asked him to bring cash. The two took Shah to a room and tried to steal gold rings, a chain and money from him at knifepoint before stabbing him about 30 to 35 times and killing him when he resisted and tried to snatch their knife.
Reliya and Panchal beheaded Shah with a sharp weapon to prevent identification, put it in a bag, disposed of it in the Adalaj area of Gandhinagar, and left the headless body in the hotel room. Ibn Shah identifies the body by the clothes, jewelry, and surgical scar.
In April 2000, a court convicted Relyea of murder, robbery and criminal conspiracy and sentenced him to death. The Gujarat Supreme Court commuted the sentence to life imprisonment in 2001.
Relia, who was also sentenced to five years in prison in the counterfeit currency case, was declared parole in 2014 and remained on the run until May 2026.
Reliya also absconded between 2004 and 2008, evading arrest by staying in guest houses under fake names in Ahmedabad and Surat, police said. After jumping parole in 2014, he changed his identity, used aliases, and distanced himself from his past contacts while living an ordinary life with his second wife and two children, unaware of his criminal past, in Ahmedabad to avoid arrest.
He changed his name to Sanjay Thakkar through a gazette notification in 2017, a process that required public notice in two local newspapers, which helped reveal his identity, police said on Monday. They said that the hack came after technical analysis of the records, including changing the name of the newspaper. Field verification helped link his old identity to the new one.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Ajit Rajyan said technical analysis and field work helped them track down Reliya and arrest him.
Police teams traced his place of residence and conducted surveillance to confirm his identity and movements. They arrested him and referred him to the court, which decided to detain him in pretrial detention. “He settled in New Ranib [Ahmedabad]“He lived with a second wife and her two children, who were not aware of his criminal past,” the officer said.
Reliya has kept his distance from his 85-year-old father and sisters, even though they live in Ahmedabad. He opened an office in Ahmedabad’s Prahladnagar area and started a business, maintaining a low profile.
