Couple killed 3 women in 2022, hid one body in blue drum. Cops found it 4 years later
A 70-year-old woman in Gujarat vanished during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2022. Her family was told she had been taken from hospital to a crematorium. Four years later, police dug up a cement-filled drum buried in the courtyard of her home and found her remains. The discovery led the Ahmedabad Police to uncover two more murders and arrest a couple – Madhavdas and Urmila – accused of hiding the evidence in different ways.
The woman who was found in the blue drum was Shantaben Vasava. The investigation also uncovered the murders of the two 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 separately, while Manjulaben’s body was cremated.
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.
Madhavdas's complaint, however, raised suspicion.
As the police began probing the allegations, investigators found inconsistencies in Madhavdas’s account. He eventually confessed that he and Urmila had killed Shantaben and the two women, police said.
Police said Madhavdas and Urmila had been living separately after a dispute. Angry that she had left with their son, jewellery and cash, police suspect he fabricated the murder allegation against her and her cousin.
According to police, the couple took advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic situation to conceal Shantaben’s death. They told relatives that she had been taken from the hospital directly to the crematorium and cremated. After Madhavdas’s confession, police took the accused to the spot where Shantaben’s body had been buried.
Investigators broke through a cement slab in the courtyard and dug about four to five feet into the ground before recovering a blue 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.
The investigation into Shantaben’s murder subsequently uncovered two more killings. Bhagwati, who had tuberculosis, was suffocated with a pillow before her body was disposed of. Manjulaben, who was paralysed, was also suffocated with a pillow and her body was later cremated, police said.
Shantaben’s remains have been sent to the forensic laboratory for further examination.- Ends
Brijesh Doshi, who lives in Ahmedabad, is a Senior Special Correspondent in the India Today Group and is currently working as the Gujarat bureau chief of AajTak-India Today TV. He reports on political matters from Gujarat. A journalist with more than 14 years of experience, Brijesh has done reported extensively from the ground during several natural disasters scuh as cyclones and floods in Gujarat in the last decade. He has also done detailed coverage on all the political developments in the state. He previously worked in Gujarat's vernacular media for more than 12 years.
