Mitesh Patel, a Gujarati man from Umreth town of Anand district, was shot dead after being robbed of cash in Lose Angeles city of United States last week. Mitesh, 33, was killed when he was about to step out of his liquor store. According to Mitesh's elder brother Hetal Patel, a businessman, Mitesh had been residing in the US since 2002. “He was about to shut his store when he was attacked by unidentified assailants,” Hetal said in Anand.
“We are going to the US after which we will start the process to get his body to perform final rites,” Hetal said adding that the family in Umreth was informed about the death from US-based relatives. Mitesh is survived by wife Bhumika and a seven-year-old daughter, Vriksha.
According to the relatives of the deceased, Mitesh's brother-in-law was in washroom when the incident happened. “Two assailants had come to the store when Mitesh was counting cash before closing the store. Mitesh had handed over the cash to the assailants when his brother-in-law came out of washroom after which the assailants shot at Mitesh,” said a relative.
Mitesh's death has added to the spate of attacks on the diaspora. Last year, there were a dozen-odd incidents in which expats fell prey to either fatal shootings or police brutality on foreign shores mainly in the US, South Africa, Germany and the UK. Earlier this month, a Gujarati man hailing from Bochasan village of Anand's Borsad taluka had died of a gunshot wound in Virginia, US.
Four Gujaratis killed in US accident
Four Gujaratis residing in US were killed in a car accident in Pennsylvania. They were cremated on Saturday morning at a crematorium in North-east Pennsylvania. The deceased have been identified as Vinod Patel (68), Komal Raval (30) Bhavesh Patel (42) and his wife Shilpa Patel (29). The accident took place on January 23, when a speeding vehicle coming from the wrong side had a head-on collision with the car in which they were commuting. Only one passenger, Silpa Patel (45), survived in the accident.
The five were returning home from work at around 1 am when the accident happened. Sources said that driver of the car that crashed into the deceased persons' car was drunk. They were working at Process Technologies and Packaging. While Vinod was a native of Khakhariya village of Savli taluka, Shilpa and Bhavesh were from Amreshwar village in Waghodia taluka. Komal was a native of Anand district.
