Man held for killing same-sex partner in Ahmedabad 14 years ago

A man was arrested over 14 years after he allegedly murdered his same-sex partner in Ahmedabad and concealed the body using mortar, police said on Saturday.

After committing the alleged crime, accused Ramesh Desai had fled on victim Manish Sahay's motorcycle, lived in Rajasthan for eight years, and later took up a job in a Mumbai hotel by changing his identity, the city crime branch said.

Desai allegedly killed Sahay after a fight on June 29, 2010, the crime said in a release. He stripped the body, taped and wrapped it with a cloth and concealed it beneath sand and cement under the kitchen sink of their rented house in Ahmedabad. The decomposed body of Sahay, then 34, was discovered days later.

Given the sensitive nature of the case, the crime branch began re-investigation into the murder years after it was committed and activated their sources to gather leads, the release said.  “The suspect was eventually traced to a location near Ahmedabad, en route from Mumbai to Rajasthan. Upon questioning, he initially provided false identification but later confessed to his real identity,” the crime branch said.

Desai told the police that he had a same-sex relationship with Sahay. On the day of the murder, the two got into a fight, during which Desai hit Sahay with a brick, leading to fatal injuries, the crime branch said. After concealing the body in the same house, Desai fled and lived in Rajasthan for eight years. He changed his name, created new identity documents, and even obtained a life insurance policy under his alias, police said.

In 2017, he moved to Maharashtra permanently and secured employment as a senior captain at a hotel in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, police said.