Police in Gujarat’s Junagadh district managed to recover a woman’s skeletal remains after 13 months as the prime suspect in the case managed to deceive the cops from day one of the murder, the Times of India reported on Saturday.
A 35-year-old woman, Daya Savaliya, of Rupavati village in the district, was reported missing by her husband, Vallabh, on January 2, 2024. He claimed that his wife left their house carrying cash over ₹9 lakh and gold jewellery and did not return later. The couple were parents to an 11-year-old boy.
Initial police investigations revealed the woman’s extra-marital affair with the prime suspect, Hardik Sukhadia, a resident of the same village. The man informed the police that Daya had eloped with another man she was allegedly in a relationship with. He also stopped using his mobile phone to evade tracking.
A police official told TOI that Hardik was subject to the Layer Voice Analysis (LVA) test at the Forensic Science Laboratory in Gandhinagar, which he managed to evade. “We suspect he anticipated such an investigation. Due to a lack of concrete evidence and eyewitnesses, the case was challenging for the cops,” the report quoted the official.
Clearing the technical analysis emboldened the accused to roam freely, but the case was handed over to the local crime branch police for further investigation. Special teams managed to secure technical and circumstantial evidence.
Motive behind murder
Hardik confessed to killing Daya when confronted with fresh evidence. On February 27, he was taken to the crime scene, where the police secured the woman’s skeletal remains.
The accused revealed that he was no longer interested in the woman, but she refused to part ways with him. Hardik allegedly took the woman to the outskirts of Hadala village and struck her head with a stone to kill her. Her body was then dumped into a well to destroy evidence, police said.
A day before the murder, he also helped the woman to stay at a hotel using his ex-wife’s ID card. He also called Daya’s husband using free calling apps to make him believe that his wife had gone missing.