Three Chilling Murder Cases, In Which Killers Burned Their Victims’ Bodies To Fake Their Own Deaths For Love, Insurance Money Or To Escape Debt, Were Recently Reported In Gujarat. Scientists Extracted DNA From Charred Bones And Teeth To Help Cops Identify The Victims And Nail The Accused. Parth Shastri and Nimesh Khakhariya Report:
From Hollywood’s ‘Sleeping with the Enemy’ and ‘Double Jeopardy’ to Bollywood‘s reimagined ‘Don’, movies have perfected a classic plot twist: Characters who stage their own deaths, only to resurface later — their disappearance being a calculated move in a greater scheme. Gujarat has seen this cinematic trope transform into a reality in three recently reported murder cases.
In two of these cases, perpetrators targeted people within their circle of acquaintances, killing them to claim financial benefits. The third case, reported from Kutch district, involved a couple who kidnapped a beggar, murdered him, and burned his body. The woman strategically placed her belongings near the corpse to pass off the body as hers.
While investigators have caught the accused in all three cases, these crimes share a vital forensic thread. Experts emphasise that establishing the identity of the charred body is crucial to solving such cases.
H P Sanghvi, director of the Directorate of Forensic Science (DFS), explains the meticulous process: “Forensic scientists follow multiple steps to confirm if the remains belong to a specific individual. We begin by analysing the remains to determine if the bones belong to an adult, identifying the gender and verifying if the estimated time of death aligns with other case details.”
DNA analysis emerges as the primary investigative tool in these cases. The DFS experts extract DNA from the victims and compare it with samples from living relatives to establish concrete proof. “When only charred bones are available, we analyse the bone marrow for DNA samples,” Sanghvi elaborates. “For bodies that aren’t completely charred, DNA can be sourced from teeth, soft tissues or blood. The quality of the sample significantly influences our DNA analysis.”
Investigators note that these cases reflect a disturbing combination of greed and overconfidence, with perpetrators believing they could successfully obscure their crimes by manipulating identities. Yet, as these cases demonstrate, forensic science continues to unveil the truth behind such elaborate deceptions.
STAGED SUICIDE: LOVERS MURDER HOMELESS MAN
A case that could inspire a film script unfolded when Kutch police arrested Rami Kesariya and her lover Anil Gangal in Aug last year. Their arrest exposed a dark plan — the murder of an innocent homeless man to fake Rami’s death. The story began in July when Rami’s family found her belongings near a burned body in Khari village near Bhuj.
Having found her footwear and mobile phone by the charred logs of wood, they believed she had killed herself. So they collected the remains and performed the last rites. The case took an unexpected turn in mid-Sep when Rami’s father called Khavda police —his daughter had come home.
Inspector M B Chavda of Khavda police station revealed that Rami, 27, was in love with Anil, who was already married. The lovers knew they could not be together unless everyone thought she was dead. “They began looking for someone they could kill and pass off as Rami,” said Chavda. “They found their target — a beggar near Hamirsar Lake in Bhuj. On July 3, they kidnapped the man at night and strangled him in their van.” Other beggars in the area later identified the victim as Bharat Bhatiya.
“They hid his body in a jute bag in a cattle shed. Two days later, Anil brought 20 litres of diesel and wooden logs. They burned the body at night, waiting until it was charred before it could be found,” Chavda added. Before the murder, Rami had sent her father a video saying she would end her life because she was unhappy. Kutch (West) SP Vikas Sunda said guilt eventually drove Rami to confess to her father, who realised the gravity of her crime.
Police found that Anil had even attended Rami’s memorial service. He also kept in touch with his wife while in hiding with Rami. The lovers lived in a rented house in Bhuj until Rami went back home.
Rs 1CR INSURANCE PLOT: HOTELIER KILLS WORKER
A chilling plot unfolded in Dec when a hotel owner murdered his employee and burned a car, hoping to claim Rs 1 crore in insurance to escape his mounting debts. On Dec 27 last year, Prakashsinh Parmar from Dhelana village near Palanpur, reported finding human remains in the burned car of his brother Dalpatsinh Parmar (alias Bhagwansinh).
Dalpatsinh’s phone had been switched off since Dec 26 night, when employees last saw him leaving his hotel around 11pm. While Vadgam police initially registered it as an accidental death, assistant superintendent Suman Nala noticed red flags.
“From the start, something was amiss — the statements of those close to Dalpatsinh, CCTV footage, and the car itself were not telling the same story,” she said.
Police detained five suspects who revealed they had exhumed a skeleton from a nearby Dhelana village crematorium. Investigators thought this was a breakthrough and that the skeleton was meant to be planted in the car to help Dalpatsinh get a death certificate. However, forensic tests showed the remains in the car were from a recent death, not months old as the suspects had claimed. When confronted, the group confessed that they had moved the skeleton elsewhere as its decomposed state would not have convinced the insurer.
The case took a turn in early Jan when Hansa Gameti from Virampur reported her husband Revabhai missing. A crucial detail emerged: Revabhai too worked for Dalpatsinh. According to Gameti, Dalpatsinh had picked him up in his car on Dec 26. Based on forensic proof and the suspects’ statements, a murder FIR was filed against Dalpatsinh. The motive was clear: he needed the insurance money to pay off the debts he had incurred to upgrade his highway hotel.
DEBT EVASION: MAN SETS FRIEND ABLAZE
In a third gruesome case from Gondal town in Rajkot district, a man in his forties murdered his friend in cold blood and burned the body to fake his own death, all to avoid paying Rs 10 lakh to a contractor. The accused was arrested in Jan.
It was on Dec 25 that Mota Mahika villagers discovered a partially burned body. Based on belongings found at the scene — a wallet, footwear and mobile phone — the victim appeared to be Hasmukh Dhanja. But police soon learned Dhanja was alive and had murdered someone else. K G Zala, deputy superintendent of police, Gondal, found three different footprints at the crime scene. The probe identified the victim as Sandeep Goswami, 40, from Rajkot. “We cracked the case when we found the third person was a minor connected to Dhanja. On being questioned, he revealed the truth,” Zala said.
Police found Dhanja had planned to fake his death by killing Goswami. On Dec 25, Dhanja had invited Goswami home, claiming they would travel to Mumbai for business. Goswami’s wife Gayatri, who runs a beauty parlour and has two daughters, shared these details with police.
Goswami’s last call to Gayatri that evening came from Mota Mahika village. His mobile was switched off after that call.
“Dhanja was mediating a Kumbh Mela catering deal for a vendor from North Gujarat. The caterer, who is not part of the probe, had paid Rs 10 lakh as deposit for the contract. When the agency in Delhi was not approving the deal, Dhanja feared that he would have to repay the deposit. He said he faked his death to escape the situation,” said a police source. In this case too, forensic evidence helped the cops.
DNA SCIENCE KEY TO SOLVING CASES:
The DNA division of DFS faced significant challenges with the charred remains in all three cases since forensic assessment depends on the condition of the samples. Assistant director M M Patel explains they developed techniques to extract and match DNA even from small samples of burned bones. “All three cases involved burned remains, which creates specific challenges in extracting bone marrow samples and linking them to relatives and crime scenes,” Patel said. “We have developed methods to get DNA matches from even tiny samples, helping us confirm victims’ identities by comparing with family members’ DNA.” Forensic experts noted that DFS had also proven its expertise in the major Rajkot fire incident, one of India’s largest victim identification projects in recent years. “While intense heat destroys bone marrow, we examine several bones to find usable samples. When that is not possible, we can sometimes get the required DNA samples from tooth bases,” an official explained. In the case of Banaskantha murder, investigators collected blood samples from family members to match against the remains found in the burned car.
DEATH AND DECEPTION IN FICTION
Literary takes:
– Harlan Coben’s Play Dead
– Kevin Wilson’s The Family Fang
– John Marrs’ The Passengers
– Charmaine Wilkerson’s Black Cake
– John Grisham’s The Partner
Hollywood hits:
– Mission: Impossible
– The Mechanic
– You Don’t Mess with The Zohan
– Reindeer Games
– My Amazing Funeral
Indian movies:
– Kurup
– Naqaab
– Kohram
– Katilon ke Kaatil