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Family's agony Tragedy of couple killed after surprise visit home

The Guardian Weekly

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June 20, 2025

In the cramped lanes of Ambika Nagar, everyone spoke of Pooja and Harshit Patel with pride.

Family's agony Tragedy of couple killed after surprise visit home

The couple had done what none of their relatives or neighbours had managed: they had moved abroad, settling among the thriving Gujarati diaspora community in the city of Leicester.

Their lives in England, where the couple had relocated so Pooja, 28, could complete her business master's degree - later getting a job at Amazon alongside Harshit, 33 - seemed unimaginably glamorous to their relatives and close-knit community back in India. Pooja would call her mother, Chandra Mate, 58, at least three times a day with tales of British life.

Mate, who had never left India and had spent most of her life in this small house in Ahmedabad, lived for these calls. Collectively Pooja and Harshit's families had spent every penny, sold every piece of ancestral land and jewellery, and pooled every resource to get their children to the UK and to pay for Pooja's degree. When the couple arrived in India, surprising their families with their first visit in two years, they were greeted like celebrities.

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