Man Fakes Death By Setting Another Ablaze, Texts To Girlfriend Expose Him

He murdered a hapless hitchhiker to fake his own death and even let his family grieve over him, only to be undone by a series of messages to his girlfriend.

In the early hours of Sunday, police in the Ausa taluka of Latur in Maharashtra were informed about a charred body being found in a completely burnt car. They traced the car's owner and discovered that he had lent it to one of his relatives. When they tried to contact the man's relative, Ganesh Chavan, a bank recovery agent, they were told that he had not returned home and his phone was also switched off. 

"Based on all of these facts, our initial assumption was that the person who had died was Chavan," said Latur Superintendent of Police (SP) Amol Tamble.

But a sting in the tail was coming.

As the investigation progressed, the police began realising on Monday that several elements were not adding up. They started looking into Chavan's life and found out that he was in a relationship with a woman. 

"When we questioned the woman, we learned that, after the incident, Ganesh Chavan was messaging her and chatting with her using another phone number," Tambe said.

With the man they thought was dead now proven alive, the police wanted to know who was in the car and began tracking Chavan's alternate phone number. This led them to Kolhapur and then to Vijaydurg in Sindhudurg district, where Chavan was found and taken into custody.

Murder Most Foul

On questioning Chavan, the police discovered that he had taken out a Rs 1-crore life insurance policy and wanted the money to pay off a home loan. To achieve this, he began plotting a murder so that he could fake his own death.

On Saturday, Chavan offered a lift to a hitchhiker, Govind Yadav, at the Tuljapur T-junction in Ausa. Officials said Yadav was drunk and Chavan took advantage of this.

"They stopped at an eatery and then drove towards the Vanavada Pati-Vanavada road. After parking the car, Yadav ate some food and soon fell asleep inside the vehicle. Chavan then dragged him into the driver's seat, fastened the seatbelt, placed matchsticks and plastic bags on the seat and set them on fire," an official told news agency PTI.

To mislead the police and also convince his family that he was dead, Chavan left his bracelet near Yadav. 

"A murder case has now been registered. Further investigation will be conducted to determine if Chavan had any accomplices," said SP Tambe.