Bhavnagar triple murder: 3 of family ‘missing’, 2 pits, an unsent text: How forest officer landed in police net

SP Pandey said, “The accused had admitted to having killed his wife first, then son and then daughter by smothering them with a pillow on November 5. He then weighted the bodies with stones and put them in 6-ft pits filled with water. He also put a door and a blanket over the pits and then had the pits filled up with sand.”

The FIR was registered at Bharatnagar police station on November 16, on the basis of a complaint by ASI Hiren Balu Sodhatar, on behalf of the state. Khambhla was booked under BNS sections for murder, causing disappearance of evidence, and making false statements to a public servant.

Earlier, the probe began with an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) attempting to trace a woman and two children who had apparently left home while her husband was away on duty.

However, an unsent text, two holes in the ground and the family of three having “gone missing” led the police to investigate the actions of the only surviving member of this family, the Forest Officer who appeared to be frantically looking for his family members.

Search for ‘missing’ persons

At 6 pm on November 7, the police station officer (PSO) of Bharatnagar police filed a missing persons report on the basis of a complaint by Sailesh Bachu Khambhla, 39, Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) that his wife Nayana (42), daughter and son had travelled from Surat and visited him in Bhavnagar during Diwali vacation. The missing persons report states that Khambhla had gone for a field visit on November 5 and when he returned at 2 pm the same day, “all three were missing.”

After the missing persons’ report was filed on November 7, ASI Sodhatar, in the FIR, said that he immediately began an investigation and acquired the photos, IDs of the woman and children and sent them across to all police stations.

On November 8, he sought the Call Data Records (CDR) of Nayana’s phone, which she had allegedly left in the house.
“From the phone CDR, we also tried checking whether there were any unknown or suspicious numbers in contact with Nayana and whether there was an extramarital affair, but nothing like that came to light,” said an investigator.

The FIR stated that Sailesh Khambhla also told the police that the society watchman had seen Nayana and the two kids go somewhere by autorickshaw but during questioning, it was not clear that it was the officer’s family members who were in the vehicle.

The police said that the statements of other people in the vicinity of the forest colony quarters were also unhelpful as Nayana and the two children were virtually unknown to anyone else as they lived in Surat with Sailesh’s family – his parents and younger brother – and had only come to visit him during the Diwali vacation of the children.

A message, unsent

When CCTV footage also did not help in the case, ASI Sodhatar said he checked the communications between Sailesh Khambhla and his wife, and then decided to speak to Nayana’s sister. This was regarding an unsent WhatsApp message from Nayana’s phone to that of Sailesh, that said she was leaving the house with the children and money.

Inspector NH Qureshi of Bharatnagar police told The Indian Express, “The unsent message from Nayana’s phone to that of Sailesh, lying unsent as her phone was on flight mode stated that she had been harassed enough and that she was leaving and that nobody should go looking for her or she would not remain alive.”

This message had been typed on the phone at 10:18 am on November 5. However, the police now believe that Sailesh himself typed this message to make it seem as if Nayana had left the home of her own accord.

This, along with other messages between the husband and wife, came across as odd to the investigators. Inspector tor Qureshi said, “We acquired several past messages written by both Nayana and Sailesh. Usually, they would type the Gujarati language in Latin script (english) in their communication. We found that the language and use of certain words with the emphasis on dialect, did not match that of Nayana.”

“Further, if Nayana wanted this message to reach her husband, why would she leave it unsent, with her phone on flight mode? This appeared to be suspicious behaviour,” added Qureshi.

It was at this point that the police turned their attention to ACF Sailesh Khambhla, making him a suspect in the disappearance of his family.

Zeroing in on the ‘graves’

The FIR states that when the police got the CDR of Sailesh’s phone, they saw he was in contact with one Amit Hardas Vaniya. On November 15, the police took a detailed statement of Range Forest Officer (RFO) Girish Vaniya. He said that on orders from Sailesh Khambhla, he had asked Girish Popat Baldani to use a JCB to dig two holes near Khambhla’s quarters, for “water” and “garbage” on November 2.

Later, on November 6, again on Khambhla’s orders, these two holes were filled up with dirt and the land flattened by Van Rakshak Vishal Bhaskar Panot. This statement by the RFO heightened the suspicions of the police officers.

The FIR states that on November 15 itself, ASI Sodhatar said he took the statements of both men involved in the digging and filling up of the holes near Khambhla’s quarters. The FIR stated that according to their statements, the dumpers filled with sand had arrived at the land behind the residential quarters at 10 am on November 6, had been backed into the yard and then poured into the holes with Khambhla himself supervising it. He did not allow anyone to go near the holes before the sand was poured into them, giving an excuse that there was a snake there.
When asked why ACF Khambhla’s juniors did not find these requests of digging 6-ft-deep holes and then filling them back within four days suspicious, Inspector Qureshi said, “It was a matter of routine for them especially because there was a general problem in that area. These residential quarters are located in the forest land and there are issues of waterlogging and garbage there, so they thought it was normal to be asked to dig a hole for the disposal of the same.”

However, while the process was normal, it was the timing of the holes being filled on November 6 – just about a day after Nayana and the children disappeared on November 5, and a day before Khambhla reported them missing – that struck the police as being absolutely too much of a coincidence.

“By this time, we knew that Nayana and the children had in all probability not left Bhavnagar and we had checked Sailesh Khambhla’s movements. He too had not gone anywhere with them. That then just left the holes behind the quarters as the missing link left to check. So that’s what we did and we found the bodies buried there,” said PI Qureshi.
Bhavnagar SP Nitesh Pandey said, “When we took the statement of Khambhla’s subordinates, they said that he had made them fill up the holes on November 6, which was a day after his family went missing. Additionally, he stopped anyone from approaching the holes by claiming that a snake was spotted… All this was suspicious timing, which is why we had the holes dug up.”

Family dispute likely motive

After taking these statements, the investigators informed Bhavnagar City Division Deputy Superintendent of Police R R Singhal who ordered the two pits dug up and so the same was done in the presence of witnesses on November 16. One was 6.5 ft deep and the other 6 ft.

From the holes, they found three bodies, which were identified as those of the three missing persons – Nayana and her two children – by a relative. The bodies were sent for post-mortem to Bhavnagar Civil Hospital. The panchnama was carried out in the presence of an executive magistrate.

The dog squad called in for investigation, also led the police to the living room of the house where the alleged murders had taken place.

Asked about the motive for the murders, PI NH Qureshi told The Indian Express, “According to the accused, Nayana wanted to live with Sailesh but he wanted her to stay with his parents in Surat. He had told Nayana to manage till after January next year, when his younger brother was slated to be married. He asked her to take care of his parents till his brother’s wife could do so instead, but Nayana did not agree. This apparently angered him and led him to kill them.”

The Bhavnagar Police team arrested Sailesh from his home in Surat on Monday and transported him to Bhavnagar. SP Pandey said that primarily it appears that he committed the crime alone with unwitting participants, but further investigation is on.

The accused is posted as the Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) of Bhavnagar, in the Social Forestry Division. He had been in this post for nearly a year since his promotion, said forest department officials. Earlier, he served as Range Forest Officer (RFO) in Bharuch.

Senior officers in the Forest Department, on condition of anonymity, said that no duty-related problems had been noticed in Sailesh’s work prior to this incident.

They said the residential quarters in Bhavnagar are located on a patch of land measuring around 50 bighas with only sparse housing for the local officials and personnel, all far apart from each other.