A 33-year-old army personnel from Ajni, posted in Nagaland, murdered his girlfriend about a month and a half ago and buried her body in a forest near Butibori, Nagpur. He then disposed of her cellphone, which was traced to a truck that went to Hyderabad and later Chhattisgarh.
The Beltarodi police successfully solved the murder and evidence destruction case with considerable effort, officially registering it on Monday. They also exhumed the body, and a forensic examination was conducted at the spot.
The accused, Ajay Wankhede, who was arrested and presented in court on Monday, killed his girlfriend, Jyotsna Akre, approximately 32, after she demanded that he marry her immediately.
According to police sources, the two met on a matrimonial site. Jyotsna, a divorcee, had registered for marriage on the platform.
Following a brief courtship, Jyotsna began pressuring Wankhede to marry her. Already married, Wankhede initially resisted, but her persistent demands eventually led him to plan her murder. Police believe Wankhede lured Jyotsna to a desolate place near Butibori, where he first plied her with alcohol and then killed her after she fell unconscious.
After burying her body, Wankhede covered the pit with leaves, branches, and stones to blend it into the forest. He threw her cellphone into a passing truck on Wardha Road and then traveled to Pune, where he admitted himself to an army hospital. The Beltarodi police initially filed a missing person report on August 29 but later classified the case as kidnapping on September 17 and began searching for Jyotsna.
Initially, the police were puzzled as Jyotsna’s cellphone showed different locations when tracked by cyber experts. The truck driver who discovered her cellphone had started using it with his own SIM card while traveling for work, leading investigators to believe Jyotsna had eloped. When the Beltarodi police, led by Senior Inspector Mukund Kawade and DCP Rashmitha Rao, sought to interrogate Wankhede, he filed for bail in the session court, but his plea was rejected.
He later approached the high court but was denied bail on October 5. When questioned by police, he initially refused to admit to the crime. However, sources indicated that Wankhede eventually broke down before the Beltarodi police, revealing details and leading them to the location where he buried the body. The police have since secured a three-day remand for Wankhede to conduct further interrogation.