FULLERTON : Charges Dismissed in Apartment Arson

A Municipal judge dismissed attempted murder and arson charges against a Fullerton man this week after ruling that there was insufficient evidence to try Vinay Gandhi in connection with the case, in which his wife was bound and gagged and their apartment set afire last July.

After five days of testimony in a preliminary hearing that included an account from the wife, Municipal Judge Anthony Rauckaukus dropped the charges against Gandhi, 23.

“This case should have never gone forward,” said Gandhi’s attorney, Marshal Schulman. “This is the worst investigation I have ever seen in my life. My client’s life is (a) shambles, and the court cost has broken his family.”

Gandhi’s wife, Hemangini Ladva, 21, testified that Gandhi bound and gagged her and left her to die in a fire in their apartment on July 23 but that she managed to knock the phone off the hook and dial 911.

Co-workers of Gandhi testified that he was at work in Lynwood 20 minutes after the fire started.

Schulman argued that Gandhi could not have driven from Fullerton to Lynwood in that time.

Schulman also argued that Ladva had a history of instability, which allegedly included three suicide attempts and that she therefore may have staged the crime herself.