Man was thought to be in Australia for 2 years. Then came a Drishyam-style twist

The man's wife, her alleged ex-lover and an associate have been arrested in connection with his murder. His body was found buried 12 feet under a concrete floor.

In Short

• Relatives were told by the man's wife that he had shifted to Australia
• She misled them, saying her husband's employer prohibited phone calls
• Cops found skeletal remains as part of a probe into the man's disappearance

In a case bearing striking similarities to the Bollywood thriller Drishyam, the police in Gujarat's Jamnagar have supposedly solved a sensational missing person's case by successfully recovering the remains of a man whose body was buried 12 feet beneath a concrete floor after allegedly being murdered by his wife, her purported lover and an associate. For nearly two years, the victim's wife, Prithvi alias Bhumiben, kept telling relatives that her husband, Jignesh Mavadiya, had moved to Australia for work and his employer strictly prohibited phone calls, police said.

The long-running deception, however, unravelled after a cousin planning a trip to Australia demanded Jignesh's address and contact details but Prithvi failed to provide the information.

Her continued hesitation aroused suspicion in family members and a police complaint was eventually lodged by Jignesh's brother on July 26 this year.

The subsequent probe led to the exhuming of skeletal remains from beneath a factory premises in Jamnagar on Thursday, July 30.

All three accused, Prithvi, her alleged ex-lover, Nilesh Kachhatiya, and his friend Balveer Verma, have been arrested.

"To ascertain the identity of the deceased, the remains have been handed over to forensic experts," a police official said.

According to the police, Prithvi allegedly murdered Jignesh by poisoning him in collusion with Nilesh, with whom she was purportedly in an extramarital affair at the time.

Police claimed that on the night of May 31, 2024, the accused allegedly lured Jignesh to an industrial shed on the pretext of an alcohol party.

"After he consumed the cyanide-laced liquor and died, they allegedly dug a pit about 12 feet deep, buried the body, covered it with soil and later sealed the spot with nearly one-foot-thick concrete layer. The crime scene was reconstructed in the presence of the accused before the excavation was carried out, which revealed skeletal remains believed to be those of Jignesh," Assistant Superintendent of Police Pratibha was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

She said power tools had to be used to drill through the nearly one-foot-thick concrete layer covering the burial site during the excavation process.

"To ascertain the identity of the deceased, the remains have been handed over to forensic experts. The victim's wife, her alleged lover and one of their associates have been arrested," she added.

Sections relating to murder, destruction of evidence and other offences have been invoked against the accused. Further investigation is underway to establish the complete sequence of events and gather additional evidence in the case, the polic said.

- Ends
(With inputs from PTI)