A Dalit man was burnt alive in women’s clothes so 2 lovers could flee

Suresh approached the police. Within hours, it emerged that the body belonged to a 56-year-old man, Harji Debha Solanki, who lived in Vauva village 7 kms away.

The case was initially believed to be a caste-based murder – Harji was a Dalit – with Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani even raising the issue on social media, especially since it came on the back of the murder of another Dalit man in Amreli last week.

But what emerged during a 24-hour investigation that culminated in the arrest of Geeta and another man from Palanpur railway station, 177 km away from Jakhrota village, in Banaskantha left the police stunned.

Police said the man’s murder was part of a well-thought out plan hatched by the woman and her alleged boyfriend to throw her husband off the scent. The woman thought that by seeing a badly burnt body in her ghagra-choli, her husband would believe she had died by suicide and won’t go looking for her, police said. This way, she would get to start a new life with her boyfriend, they added.

As Harji’s post mortem report came out, another unsettling fact came to light: The man had died of burn injuries, signifying that he was alive when he was set on fire. The woman and the man she was seen with at the railway station have been arrested for murder, police said.

Body in the backyard

Suresh’s home is situated near Sutaroki Talavadi in Jakhotra village, which lies 15 km north-west of Santalpur town, the headquarters of the taluka of the same name in Patan.

On Tuesday, Suresh told police that his wife had gone missing the night before, around 11 pm. Believing that she was somewhere in the neighbourhood, he went back to bed. But when she did not return even in the morning, he began looking for her and stumbled upon the partially burnt body. He informed Santalpur police station about it as well as Geeta’s disappearance.

Soon after, police began doing the rounds of different villages with a picture of the body in hand. One of these villages was Piprala where a resident, Pancha Debha Solanki, saw the picture and was shocked to notice its resemblance with his brother Harji who lived alone in Vauva village working as a casual labourer.

Pancha accompanied the police to GMERS Dharpur Civil Hospital where he identified Harji’s body. At the hospital, he learnt that his brother had died of burn injuries.

No one knew how Harji ended up in another village, much less why he was found in women’s clothing.

Pancha lodged an FIR at Santalpur police station. This was the same police station that Suresh had approached to inform about his wife’s disappearance.

During investigation, police learnt that Geeta was allegedly involved in an extra-marital affair with one Bharat Lubha Ahir for the last 3-4 months, officers said.

Police began looking for Bharat but found that he, too, was missing from his home. With the help of cell phone triangulation and CCTV footage, Bharat and Geeta were traced to Palanpur railway station at 4am on Wednesday. They had tickets to Jodhpur, Rajasthan, in their hands. The Local Crime Branch (LCB) of Patan Police detained them and brought them back to the city where they were formally placed under arrest.

An almost ‘perfect murder’

Police said Bharat and Geeta’s questioning revealed that they had hatched the plan to “find a body”, pass it off as Geeta’s, and elope to start a new life elsewhere.

Patan Superintendent of Police (SP) V K Nayi told The Indian Express, “After Geeta and Bharat hatched this plan, the latter went to look for a suitable victim. He visited villages of Barara, Datrana, Santalpur and Madhutra before zeroing in on Harji who was walking through an isolated stretch in Vauva village. Since he was frail and alone, he became an easy target. Bharat pulled Harji into the bushes and tried to strangulate him. When Harji lost consciousness, Bharat tied him to his waist and set off to Jakhotra village on his cousin’s bike. He hid Harji there till night.”

Police said they have taken statements from witnesses who saw Bharat carrying an unconscious Harji from Vauva to Jakhotra. When asked about this, Bharat allegedly told them that Harji was sick and he was taking him to a hospital, said police officers.

SP Nayi said, “At night, after Geeta joined him, the duo dressed Harji up and set him on fire before fleeing.”

According to a police statement, Geeta and Bharat first travelled to Santalpur and then Radhanpur before crossing the district border to reach Palanpur in Banaskantha. From there, the duo went to Kanodar town, also in Banaskantha, before heading to Palanpur railway station.

What Bharat and Geeta did not know was that Harji had not died of strangulation earlier. “He was still alive when they set him on fire… We also have statements from staff at a nearby petrol pump who said that Geeta had taken petrol in a can from their outlet,” said the SP.