RATLAM: In a twist which seems straight out of a Bollywood film, Madhya Pradesh police on Monday revealed that RSS worker Himmat Patidar, who was believed to be murdered, had faked his own killing, only to get the insurance money worth Rs 20 lakh. Police claimed that Himmat wanted to use the money to repay his debt.


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Patidar tried to mislead the police by allegedly murdering his 32-year-old farm labourer Madan Malviya and passing it off as his own 'murder'. The 36-year-old Patidar also burnt the face of Malviya to conceal the identity.


A senior police officer told PTI that Patidar is still alive and is absconding.


Addressing a press conference, Ratlam Superintendent of Police Gaurav Tiwari that the identity of the deceased was established by the police through DNA test.


The body with the throat slit was found on January 23 in the field of Patidar at Kamed village in Ratlam district. Tiwari told PTI that though Patidar was attached to RSS, he was not holding any post in RSS.


The incident had created a sensation in Madhya Pradesh with the BJP taking to streets to protest against the deteriorating law and order in the state.


"During the probe, police found out that Madan Malviya, who used to work on Patidar's farm, had been missing. We also noticed that the physical build of the corpse resembled with Malviya," the SP said.


Tiwari said that during initial probe it was believed that Patidar was killed by Malviya but the investigation took a new turn after a diary was found by the police near the dead body containing details like insurance policy number of Patidar. The diary also has details of Patidar's fixed deposits, bank pin number etc.


A mobile phone was also recovered by the police from the body but the phone was erased of all call data. This made police suspicious and they decided to do DNA test of the victim. After the test, it was revealed that the body was not of Patidar but Malviya.


Providing more details of the case, Ratlam SP said that Patidar also dressed Malviya with his own clothes after slitting his throat but he forgot to change his under-pant.


"The accused failed to change the deceased's underwear with his own which ultimately led to the identification of Malviya by his wife," the senior police officer was quoted as saying by PTI.


(with agency inputs)