Here is a true story that would make Ram Gopal Varma’s macabre thrillers pale in comparison. A missing complaint about a lonely 90-year-old woman forced the police in Rajkot to take a re-look at a suicide case.
What they unearthed was a gruesome tale of murder spurred by love for a man, a woman had never met.
In June 2011, a 27-year-old Mina Khuman set herself ablaze at her home in Rupavati village of Jetpur in Rajkot.
When police was called to the place of incident, all that was left was her charred body, some clothes and a photograph of her 5-year-old son.
Following the suicide, Mina’s parents lodged a compliant against her husband and two other relatives. Mina’s husband Harsur, uncle Valkubhai and brother Jayraj were arrested by Rajkot rural police for harassing her and driving her to suicide. In September 2011, the sarpanch of the village realised that one Jiviben Sagar, a 90-year-old woman had not been seen by anyone in the village for long.
Jiviben used to live near Mina’s house. A concerned sarpanch made an application to the Jetpur police about the missing woman.
As police set out to trace Jiviben, she led them to her murderer from beyond the grave. Police during investigation found Mina living with her lover in Miti Village.
According to Jetpur police, Mina was married to Harsur, a teacher, in 2005. She had a 5-year-old son Harpal from the marriage. Mina often used to talk to her brother in Junagadh.
One day, she accidentally dialled a wrong number and talked to one Jesa Kadchha, a driver living in Miti village of Junagadh.
Soon they began talking regularly and fell in love. "Mina decided to leave her home to be with Jesa forever, who was also married. But she didn't want the notoriety associated with such an elopement. So she came up with a foolproof plan," said KH Gohil, police inspector Rajkot rural.
Gohil said Mina decided to stage her own suicide and called her lonely neighbor Jiviben to have lunch at her home. "Mina first strangulated Jiviben and then set her ablaze. To make it as real as possible, she put some of her clothes near the very charred body and also left a photograph of her son besides it. She then left for Junagadh," said Gohil.
Gohil said the body was so charred that even the post-mortem report could not find any foul play. While looking for Jiviben, police got a tip-off about the dead Mina. They found her a week ago living with Jetha. She had been living with him for the last 6 months.
What shocked police was that Mina had never even seen Jetha, before she set out to live with him. Jetha, a driver by profession also accepted Mina, as his own wife had left him a few years ago.
Mina has been arrested and police are investigating to see if Jetha had any role to play in the murder of Jiviben.
