He spent 22 days in jail for his daughter’s ‘murder’. Then she walked into a police station, alive

The family is trying to recover. “My house remained locked while I was in jail. My daughter-in-law had gone to her parents’ home for delivery,” said Kalmekar, a widower.

The knock on the door

On an evening in the first week of May, six policemen from Maharashtra’s Buldhana district arrived at Kalmekar’s house in MP’s Khadki village, accompanied by a local constable. “They told me my daughter, Shivani, had died and that they had found her body,” Kalmekar recalled.

“They told me they were taking me to identify her body, but instead they kept me at Khaknar police station for a night and a day. I never got to see the body till the end,” he said.

What followed, he alleges, was assault and coercion. “They started beating us. They separated me from my son, Ajay. They told me my son had confessed, and they told my son that I had confessed. Believing that my son had admitted to it, I too said ‘yes’ under pressure. I was tired,” he said.

“We started saying yes to everything the police asked us,” said Ajay (28). The father and son were arrested for what police alleged was an “honour” killing. “I kept telling the police that I had not killed my daughter,” Kalmekar said.

Asked about the allegations of custodial assault and extortion, Buldhana Superintendent of Police Nilesh Tambe said, “Departmental inquiry is on. All allegations will be verified.”

A complaint, a body, a theory

The case began with Shivani’s own father reporting her missing. Around April 23, after Shivani left home, Kalmekar lodged a missing person’s complaint at Khaknar police station.

Shivani had been married and had returned to her parental home when she left. The family had not disclosed this in the complaint, and it was only after Maharashtra Police detained and interrogated Bapuram and Ajay, Inspector Abhishek Jadhaw, Station House Officer of Khaknar police station, said that police learnt she had left with Arun Kalmekar, a resident Khadki village.

“Shivani had already been married and had returned to her parental home for a few days when she and Arun met again. Based on this information, we registered a missing person’s complaint on May 9 and began searching for Arun, after Maharashtra police told us about Shivani’s murder,” Jadhaw said.

Days after the missing complaint was filed, a partially burnt, headless body of an unidentified woman was found near a riverbank in Buldhana district. A human skull was recovered about 100 metres away.

The Indian Express has learnt that while investigating the case, Maharashtra police checked missing persons complaints in neighbouring districts and matched the unidentified body with Shivani’s complaint, since the body seemed to be of the same age as Shivani’s. Although investigators concluded that the body was hers, they did not scientifically establish its identity before arresting her father and brother, the lapse later acknowledged by the chief minister in the Assembly. Maharashtra police, Jadhaw said, had informed them that the missing woman from their jurisdiction had been identified as the victim found in Buldhana.

A theory was built around the arrests. Police alleged that Bapuram and Ajay murdered Shivani because she was in a relationship with her cousin despite being married. According to investigators, Bapuram beat his daughter to death with a bamboo stick on the night of April 23, the father and son kept the body at home overnight, transported it more than 100 kilometres on a motorcycle to Rajura farmland in Buldhana, burnt it, severed the head and dumped the remains at different locations. Police claimed that blood-stained clothes and the alleged murder weapon was dumped somewhere.

None of it, as it turned out, had happened.

The case collapses

“But after Maharashtra police claimed the girl had been killed by her family, we wondered what had happened to Arun. We later learnt he had travelled elsewhere in search of daily-wage work. When we traced him, we found Shivani was alive and staying with him,” Jadhaw said.

“We initially detained them in Nagpur. After gaining their confidence, we advised both of them to come to Burhanpur. They complied, and we verified through multiple means, including Shivani’s biometric details, that she was indeed the missing woman. We then advised her to appear before Jalgaon Jamod police station in Maharashtra,” he said.

Shivani’s appearance before Maharashtra police brought the murder case against her father and brother crashing down. Both men were released after 22 days in jail.

One question, however, remains open, and it is the darkest one. The woman whose partially burnt, headless body was found in Buldhana is yet to be identified, SP Tambe confirmed to The Indian Express. Someone was killed. The police, having attached the wrong name to her, are yet to find out who.

A family still afraid

The family is trying to recover. “My house remained locked while I was in jail. My daughter-in-law had gone to her parents’ home for delivery,” said Kalmekar, a widower.

In Khadki, residents still remember the evening the police came. “They came in the evening and took away the father and son, saying their daughter had died. They did not allow any of us to go near them,” said Mitharam Jambekar, the village’s deputy sarpanch.

Villagers say Bapuram now avoids talking about the case, leaving home early each morning for daily-wage work and returning only late in the evening.

Tribal leader Vinod Daberao, who has been visiting the family, said they remain deeply shaken. “The family is now afraid to speak to any government official. Ajay is visibly shaken after the episode, but we keep visiting the village to ensure they are not pressured further,” he said.