Ahmedabad : A 70-year-old woman in Gujarat was allegedly murdered during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2022. Her family was told she had been taken from the hospital to a crematorium. The investigation uncovered two more alleged murders, leading to the arrest of a couple – Madhavdas and Urmila – and the registration of a triple murder case by the Ahmedabad Police.
The woman found in the drum was Shantaben Vasava, Urmila’s grandmother. The investigation also discovered evidence of two other murdered women – Bhagwati Vasava, Urmila’s sister, and Manjulaben Sadhu, Madhavdas’s mother. Police said all three women were smothered before their bodies were disposed of in different ways. While Shantaben was buried in the cement-filled drum, Bhagwati was buried elsewhere, and Manjulaben was cremated.
The motives for the alleged triple murders, which involve Urmila’s sister and grandmother and Madhavdas’s mother, remain unclear with police saying that further investigation is underway. The case came to light after Madhavdas approached the Ahmedabad Police and accused his estranged wife and her cousin, Afzal alias Photo Dewan, of conspiring to murder Shantaben.
Police said that of late, Madhavdas and Urmila had been living separately after a dispute. Angry that she had left with their son, jewellery and cash, police suspect Madhavdas attempted to use the murder allegation against her and her cousin as revenge. According to police, the couple took advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic situation to conceal the death of Shantaben who they had allegedly murdered.
Investigators broke through a cement slab in the courtyard and dug about four to five feet into the ground before recovering a drum containing Shantaben’s remains. Police said Madhavdas and Urmila had placed Shantaben’s body inside the drum, mixed three bags of cement with water and filled the drum before burying it in a pit. They then covered the spot with another thick layer of cement.
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