The forest officer from Gujarat, who was arrested for killing his wife and two children and dumping their bodies in a pit near his residence in Bhavnagar, had an affair with a colleague for nearly four years.
According to the police, the accused, identified as Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) Shailesh Khambhla (39), befriended a woman forest worker in 2022. Their friendship soon turned into an affair. It is, however, unclear whether the woman was involved in the crime.
The police have questioned the woman in connection with the case, officials said.
The forest officer was recently transferred to Bhavnagar, while his 40-year-old wife, Nayana, 13-year-old daughter, Pritha, and 9-year-old son, Bhavya, used to live in Surat. They had travelled to Bhavnagar for a short vacation. However, they went missing shortly after, sparking concern within the family and prompting a massive search.
On November 5, the officer approached the police, claiming that his security guard had seen his wife and children leaving in an auto-rickshaw while he was on duty. The guard, however, denied the claim. The "strange behaviour" of Khambhla during questioning and his apparent "lack of concern" for the missing family members deepened suspicion, the police said.
A preliminary investigation into Khambhla's call records showed he was in contact with a junior officer named Girish Vania. The accused had asked Vania to dig two pits behind his house to dump garbage - which he did on November 2. Four days later, the accused officer 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.
The cops, on November 16, recovered the bodies of the accused's wife and children from the pits.
Subsequently, the forest officer was arrested.
Khambhla admitted to the crime during questioning and revealed that it was a pre-planned murder. He had also sent a message from his wife's phone to himself after the murder, saying she was leaving to live with someone else. The phone was then put on airplane mode.
A marital dispute between the accused and his wife was the prima facie trigger for the crime, wherein the victims were smothered with a pillow, officials said.
According to the police, Khambhla told them that his wife did not want to live in Surat with his in-laws and had been insisting that they live together in Bhavnagar - a demand he resisted.
(With inputs from Mahendra Prasad)
