It has been eight years since delivery driver Surjit Takhar was found dead near Shifnal but there has been no conclusive answer as to what led to his death.
In 2015, road workers discovered human remains at the side of a motorway near Shifnal in Shropshire, some 30 miles from where the father-of-three lived. Investigation revealed they were Takhar’s. Police believe he was murdered. Four people, arrested and interviewed two years later, were released. But nobody has been charged in connection with the case and detectives still say it “remains an open investigation”.
Takhar, from Oldbury, first disappeared in 2008 but came back home.
Investigation indicated that he had a “very chaotic lifestyle” in his final days amid his mounting debts - it is believed he owed money to some dubious characters.
Takhar made a frantic 999 call after someone came to his home just days before his second and final disappearance.
Investigators believed his debt was the most likely reason he was targeted, according to a Birmingham Live report.
When his remains were accidentally discovered by road workers, there was evidence that he suffered fractures in the nose and wrist. Detectives believe he was murdered.
A mystery call was made to West Midlands Police in January 2016 in connection with the case but little is known about what transpired on the phone call.
Shropshire coroner John Ellery said at the end of an inquest in 2018: “It’s a great disappointment to you as a family because we don’t know what happened.”
According to detective inspector Jim Munro, Takhar “had a very chaotic lifestyle before he went missing.
“Surjit had owed money to some of these people before his death and some of the debts had been ongoing”, he said.
He confirmed the man called 999 “when someone came to his flat, so we know he was alive then”.
“It is of great disappointment that we have not been able to find how Surjit met this death,” the detective inspector said.
West Midlands Police said in 2019 that they were "still actively investigating" the case.
But nothing concrete has come out yet.
Unsolved murder: Mystery continues to shroud Surjit Takhar's death years after he was found dead
Remains of Takhar were discovered by road workers near Shifnal in Shropshire in 2015.
Michael Gove
Jeremy Hunt
