Divya Parmar, 22, had left her home in Vadodara, informing her family that she had a freelance assignment for mehendi design. Her brother received a “text reply” late evening stating that she would be back after taking the payment from her client, but Divya never returned. A day later, her family found itself running to a hospital in panic, chancing upon a viral image of an unidentified body, while scrolling through social media. Their worst fears had come true.
Divya’s body was found from Ankodia village near Vadodara on Monday evening, wrapped in a bedsheet with a wire tangled around her neck — and identified by her family at the hospital. On Tuesday, the body was sent for postmortem and a case of murder was lodged at Vadodara Taluka police station.
Her family had lodged a missing persons complaint at the JP Road police station in Vadodara city. Police said the investigation progressed on two parallel tracks– identifying the victim and tracing the accused. Police teams first compiled recent missing persons complaints across city and rural police stations and began matching details such as age, clothing, and last known movements with the unidentified body found in Ankodia. This helped establish Divya’s identity quickly, with the help of her family’s missing persons’ complaint.
Simultaneously, forensic examination of the scene yielded a key clue: a supermarket tag with a product barcode still attached to the bedsheet in which the body had been wrapped. Investigators traced the barcode to a D-Mart outlet in Vadodara and accessed purchase records to narrow down potential buyers. CCTV footage from the store was then scanned to identify the buyer. Correlating the footage with Divya’s acquaintances, the police zeroed in on Rohan Vanakar alias Parmar.
On Wednesday, the Vadodara city police nabbed Parmar– a native of Koshinga in Bodeli in Chhota Udepur. He worked at a popular café in the upscale area of Akota while Divya was employed at a private hospital, right across the street. The two had become close since about six months but recently, Parmar had begun doubting Divya’s fidelity, police said.
Vadodara district Superintendent of Police Sushilkumar Agrawal told The Indian Express that Parmar had “planned the murder for close to a week”. “In our interrogation, we have inferred that the accused had become very attached to the victim during the past few months… However, he claims that when she began ignoring his calls and withdrawing her attention in the recent weeks, it left him insecure… He began suspecting her of being involved with another man and he said his doubts were confirmed recently. The murder was premeditated,” Agrawal said.
He added that the bedsheet had provided a vital clue to the police. “The bedsheet was new and it appeared that the accused had purchased it either as part of his preparation for the murder or right after committing the crime. Scanning the CCTV footage and matching it with the accused as well as the missing persons record, which was also manually done to match the age and characteristics was an arduous task performed in a record time..” Agrawal said.
On Wednesday, Parmar was produced in a court, which sent him to six-day police custody.
Police Inspector J K Dangar of Vadodara Taluka police station told this newspaper, “On Sunday, Divya told her family that she had a mehendi design appointment, but she went out with Parmar. The two had a heated argument and Parmar strangulated her with a wire. He then dumped her body, wrapped in a sheet in the village… While the wire – which is the weapon of crime – had been recovered with the body, we are yet to recover her phone, which is crucial evidence to establish the motive…”
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Dangar added that the forensic probe of the phone will reveal if the text message received by her brother was actually sent by the victim on Sunday.
Aditi Raja is an Assistant Editor with The Indian Express, stationed in Vadodara, Gujarat, with over 20 years in the field. She has been reporting from the region of Central Gujarat and Narmada district for this newspaper since 2013, which establishes her as a highly Authoritative and Trustworthy source on regional politics, administration, and critical socio-economic and environmental issues.
Expertise:
Core Authority & Specialization: Her reporting is characterized by a comprehensive grasp of the complex factors shaping Central Gujarat, which comprises a vast tribal population, including:
Politics and Administration: In-depth analysis of dynamics within factions of political parties and how it affects the affairs in the region, visits of national leaders making prominent statements, and government policy decisions impacting the population on ground.
Crucial Regional Projects: She consistently reports on the socio-economic and political impact of infrastructure projects in the region, especially the Statue of Unity, the Sardar Sarovar Project on the Narmada River, the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail bullet train project as well as the National Highway infrastructure.
Social Justice and Human Rights: Her reporting offers deep coverage of sensitive human-interest topics, including gender, crime, and tribal issues. Her reports cover legal proceedings from various district courts as well as the Gujarat High Court (e.g., the Bilkis Bano case remission, POCSO court orders, Public Interest Litigations), the plight of tribal communities, and broader social conflicts (e.g., Kheda flogging case).
Local Impact & Disaster Reporting: Excels in documenting the immediate impact of events on communities, such as the political and civic fallout of the Vadodara floods, the subsequent public anger, and the long-delayed river redevelopment projects, Harni Boat Tragedy, Air India crash, bringing out a blend of stories from the investigations as well as human emotions.
Special Interest Beat: She tracks incidents concerning Non-Resident Gujaratis (NRIs) including crime and legal battles abroad, issues of illegal immigration and deportations, as well as social events connecting the local Gujarati experience to the global diaspora. ... Read More
