The mysterious disappearance of a forest officer's wife and two children in Gujarat has turned out to be a cold-blooded murder, leading to the arrest of her husband, who allegedly dumped the bodies in a pit near his residence in Bhavnagar, police said on Monday.
A marital dispute between Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) Shailesh Khambhla, 39, and his wife was the prima facie trigger for the crime, wherein the victims were smothered with a pillow.
Khambhla was arrested a day after the bodies of his wife, Nayana (42), son (9), and daughter (13) were found dumped in a six-foot deep pit near his official residence in Forest Colony on the Talaja Road.
Khambhla came under scrutiny as he showed a "lack of concern" for his "missing" wife and children during the investigation, and discrepancies were found in his statement, a senior police officer said.
Nayana and the children, who lived in Surat with her in-laws, came to Bhavnagar at the beginning of November during Diwali vacation.
On November 5, Khambhla approached the police, claiming his wife had left his house with their children while he was on duty, Superintendent of Police Nitesh Pandey told a press conference.
"During the investigation, the forest officer told police that the security guard of the colony had seen Nayna and the kids leaving in an auto rickshaw. The security guard denied Khambhla's version during questioning by the police", Pandey said.
The "strange behaviour" of Khambhla during questioning and his apparent "lack of concern" for the missing family members deepened suspicion, the SP said.
"Khambhla's call detail records showed he was in contact with a junior officer named Girish Vania, an RFO, before the mysterious disappearance. Vania told the police that Khambhla had asked him to dig two pits behind his house to dump some garbage lying there," said Pandey.
Vania brought in an excavator on November 2 and dug two pits behind Khambhla's quarter. On November 6, Khambhla asked Vania to send a dumper truck to fill up the trenches, claiming that a nilgai had fallen into a pit, which needed to be covered.
Police reached the spot on November 16 with the RFO and recovered three bodies after digging up the pits in the presence of forensic experts.
"Khambhla admitted to his crime, following which he was arrested on the charges of murder and trying to destroy evidence.
"It was a pre-planned murder as he first dug pits by misguiding his staff and then killing his wife and two children by smothering them using a pillow. He then dumped the bodies in pits to hide his crime," the police officer said.
Khambhla told the police that his wife didn't want to live in Surat with her in-laws and had been insisting that they live together in Bhavnagar, a demand he resisted.
"Frequent quarrels over this issue eventually ended up in the murder," said Pandey.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
