Declared dead, family jailed, woman walks back: Maharashtra CM Fadnavis admits police blunder | Mumbai News

The Chief Minister was responding to a question raised by MLA Rohit Pawar in the Legislative Assembly.

The state government will provide financial assistance to the victim’s family, who suffered injustice due to this incident. Chief Minister Fadnavis further announced that instructions have been given to complete a departmental inquiry into this entire matter within three months.

The Chief Minister stated that suspension is only a preliminary action; officials proven to have a direct link to this incident will face termination from service after completing the prescribed procedure.

HOW THE INCIDENT UNFOLDED

The case began in April, when 26 year old Shivani Kalmekar went missing from Khaknar in Madhya Pradesh’s Burhanpur district. Her family lodged a missing complaint a few days later. Around the same time, the family of Arun Dadu Kalmekar (24), with whom Shivani had reportedly left, also reported him missing.

In the first week of May, police recovered the headless and partially charred body of an unidentified young woman near Rajura Dam in Maharashtra’s Buldhana district. Investigators suspected the body was Shivani’s and, based on information gathered during the probe, detained her father, Bapurao Kalmekar, and brother, Ajay.

Police said the father and son allegedly confessed during interrogation to murdering Shivani. Based on the confession, they were arrested and remanded to judicial custody, even as investigators initiated the process of conducting DNA tests to establish the identity of the body.

However, on May 28, Khaknar police informed their counterparts in Jalgaon Jamod that Shivani had been traced alive. She later appeared at the Jalgaon Jamod police station and recorded her statement, telling officers, “I am alive. Nothing has happened to me. My father and brother should be released.”

The investigation by the Madhya Pradesh Police revealed that Shivani and Arun had travelled together and were traced near Nashik in Maharashtra, where Arun was working as a labourer.

The development forced Maharashtra Police to reopen the investigation into the unidentified body recovered near Rajura Dam. At the time, Buldhana police maintained that the father and brother had voluntarily confessed to the murder and said they were unable to explain why the two had admitted to a crime that, by then, appeared not to have occurred. Police also maintained that the accused had misled investigators by repeatedly providing false information during the investigation.

The case took another dramatic turn when Bapurao and Ajay disputed the police’s version of events.

In a video statement released after Shivani resurfaced, the father and son alleged that police had taken them to a forest, beaten them with sticks and assaulted them until they confessed to a murder they had not committed. They also alleged that officers demanded Rs 5 lakh in exchange for providing relief in the case.

Following the allegations and the public outcry, the Maharashtra Police ordered an internal inquiry into the conduct of the investigating officers. On Tuesday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis informed the Assembly that all police inspectors, sub inspectors and Crime Branch personnel associated with the probe had been suspended and that criminal cases would also be registered against those found responsible.

Even as action has been initiated against the investigating officers, the police are yet to solve the mystery of the headless woman whose body was recovered near Rajura Dam.