Santokben Jadeja

Santokben Jadeja, popularly was known as Godmother was an Indian criminal, and later a politician. Her area of operations have been in and around Porbandar. Though now marginalized by the Bharatiya Janata Party, she was once a key player in the criminal operations of Porbandar.

Santokben Jadeja
Died31 March 2011
Porbandar, Gujarat
NationalityIndian

Early life

She was married to Sarman Munja Jadeja, a leader of Maher community, who was an ordinary mill worker at Maharana Mill, but became a gangster and don when he killed the local gangster Devu Vagher, who was hired by the mill owner to break the strike.

Till 1986 Santokben was playing the role of a home maker and a mother. When under the influence of Pandurang Shastri of the Swadhyay movement her husband Sarman had bid farewell to arms and crime. But in December 1986, her husband was shot dead by Kala Keshav gang owing to old rivalry. This brought Santokben in to forefront, who decided to go back to old way of his spouse, to get even.[1]

She was an MLA from 1990 to 1995 as a candidate of Janata Dal and was close to Chimanbhai Patel.[1]

She was alleged to be behind the murder of 14 people, who she believed were responsible for her husband's murder.[2] She was arrested for giving shelter to the people, who raped two girls.[3].This false allegations were made by accused sister to mislead the investigation and later never proved in any court.


She hailed from Kutiyana town in Porbandar district.

Operations during height of influence

Her period of operation started during the 1980s and lasted for about a decade, until she was made to relocate to Rajkot.[4]

Moving into backseat

She had planned to contest the 2002 assembly elections from her native place, Kutiyana in Saurashtra. However, she later vacated the seat for the Congress party's candidate.[5] The subsequent defeat of Congress, BJP's action of further marginalization and arrest for the murder of a BJP councilor in August 2005 put her deep into the backseat.

Last years

In 2007, she came into the news again with the killing of Navghan Arsi, the son of Arsi Jadeja, the brother-in-law of Santokben.[6]

She was in the news in 2008 when her daughter-in-law was shot dead by unknown assailants.[7]

She died of a heart attack in Porbandar, Gujarat on 31 March 2011.[8]

She was the subject of a Hindi film, Godmother (1999), where her role was played by Shabana Azmi, who later won the National Film Award for Best Actress.

References
  1. Life of Godmother comes to an End
  2. Underworld don Santokben Jadeja dead
  3. "Santokben Jadeja". The Times Of India.
  4. Vyas, Sudhir (27 November 2002). "'Godmother' seeks that magic touch". The Times of India.
  5. Swaminathan, R (11 December 2002). "Porbandar witnesses battle of the dons". rediff.com. Kutiyana. Archived from the original on 19 February 2003. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  6. Santokben’s nephew killed, Jadeja family war revives Indian Express, 16 January 2007.
  7. Hiral Dave (31 May 2008). "New daughter-in-law, another twist to Santokben saga". Indian Express.
  8. Dasgupta, Manas (1 April 2011). "Underworld don Santokben Jadeja dead". The Hindu. AHMEDABAD. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
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