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Cheating case probe leads cops in Maharashtra to Gujarat man who killed wife, buried her body, planted seeds on it
Kashimira police on Saturday arrested a 35-year-old Gujarat resident for allegedly murdering his wife a year ago. The murder came to light when the police was investigating
Kashimira police on Saturday arrested a 35-year-old Gujarat resident for allegedly murdering his wife a year ago. The murder came to light when the police was investigating a cheating case.
“The couple, Ashish and Nikita Ukani, who lived in Kashimira before 2019, were booked in several cases of cheating after they had allegedly duped an Andheri firm of ₹15.65 lakh in a credit card fraud in September 2019,” said senior inspector Sanjay Hazare of Kashimira police.
After the alleged fraud, the duo fled to Mota Varachha in Surat and later changed their names and mobile numbers to live in Gujarat, said the police.
According to the police, on October 15 last year, Ukani took Nikita to his native village at Selana in Gujarat’s Amreli district. The couple was consuming alcohol late at night when an argument broke out between them over money. In a fit of rage, Ukani pushed Nikita into a nearby well and she drowned.
A while later, he pulled her body out of the well from a rope and dug a three-foot pit in the field, the police said. Ukani then put rock salt inside the pit for the body to decompose soon and buried the body. He also scattered cucumber seeds at the spot to grow the plant to prevent any suspicion. The police registered a first information report (FIR) in the cheating case in last year in December against the couple and were probing the allegations against them made by the firm.
A year later, they traced Ukani to Gujarat and he was arrested. “During his interrogation, he confessed to the cheating case, but began evasive answers when he was questioned about his wife who is a co-accused in the cheating case,” said Hazare. Later, he admitted that he had killed Nikita.
“We exhumed Nikita’s body in the presence of a judicial magistrate from Gujarat and sent the skeletal remains for forensic analysis,” said Hazare.
Along with the charges of cheating, the police also filed charges of murder against Ukani. He was brought to Mumbai and remanded to police custody till Wednesday.
The police said Ukani used to message Nikita’s parents from her phone owing to which they did not find anything amiss.
The police have also discovered that Ukani is involved in another cheating case, worth ₹2.4 crore, in Surat, and are investigating it.
