Jamnagar: A two-year-old missing-person case in Jamnagar has allegedly ended with a murder confession, after police said a woman and her lover killed her husband and then kept his family misled by claiming he had moved to Australia for work.
Investigators said the victim, Jignesh, was poisoned with cyanide mixed into alcohol and buried inside a factory premises on the city’s outskirts.
The case surfaced after the victim’s brother, Ashok Dharmeshbhai Madhavjibhai Mavdiya, filed a police complaint on July 26, saying saying Jignesh had been missing for the past two years. Police said the family had not heard from Jignesh for more than two years because his wife repeatedly insisted that he was employed in Australia.
Told Family He Was In Australia
“Whenever the family asked his wife about his whereabouts, she claimed he had gone to Australia. When they requested his contact number, she said the company he worked for in Australia did not permit phone calls; consequently, there was no contact between him and his family for two years,” Assistant Superintendent of Police Pratibha told mediapersons on Wednesday evening.
Police said the woman allegedly maintained that Jignesh would return to India only after securing permanent residency in Australia, a story that delayed suspicion for nearly two years.
The cover-up began to unravel when the complainant’s cousin, who was preparing to travel to Australia, asked her for Jignesh’s contact details.
Complaint Triggers Confession
“When threatened with police intervention, the wife finally confessed that they had killed him more than two years earlier,” Pratibha said. The complainant told police he suspected his brother had been killed by his wife and her alleged lover.
After two days of questioning, police said the woman and her alleged lover admitted to the killing. Investigators said the pair laced Jignesh’s alcohol with cyanide, then disposed of his body in a 12-foot-deep pit inside an abandoned factory they had leased.
“Upon further investigation by police, it was revealed that the victim’s wife, Prithvi, had conspired with her lover, Nilesh, to murder Jignesh by mixing cyanide into his alcohol. They buried his body inside a factory, and excavation work at the site is currently underway,” the police officer said.