Text message exposes grisly murder as man tries to fake his death

A chilling case of calculated deception and murder in rural Maharashtra came to light this week after police uncovered that a man believed to have died in a fiery car blaze was, in fact, alive — and had killed another person to fake his own death in a bid to collect a ₹10 million life insurance payout.

On Sunday early morning, officers from the Ausa police station in Latur district were alerted to a car burning on a deserted stretch of road in the Vanavada Pati–Vanavada area. Fire crews extinguished the blaze and found a charred body inside the vehicle, prompting an initial report of accidental death.

The vehicle was traced to a local resident, Ganesh Gopinath Chavan, a 35-year-old bank recovery agent. When police tried to contact him, his wife said he had left home the previous night to deliver a laptop to a friend and had not returned. With Chavan missing and his personal effects, including a bracelet, found at the scene, investigators assumed the burnt body was his — and notified his family.

But as detectives probed deeper, key inconsistencies emerged. A routine background check revealed Chavan was in a relationship; when police questioned his girlfriend, she disclosed that Chavan had been messaging her after the fire, using a different phone number.

This revelation prompted a digital trace of the alternate number. Investigators followed the trail from Kolhapur to Vijaydurg in Sindhudurg district, where they located Chavan alive and took him into custody on Monday.

In custody, Chavan confessed to the plot, according to police. He had taken out a ₹10m life insurance policy and was under heavy debt — reportedly around ₹5.7m — from a home loan and other financial pressures.

To stage his own death, Chavan allegedly offered a lift to a drunken hitchhiker, identified by police as Govind Kishan Yadav (50). After a stop for food, Yadav fell asleep in the car. Chavan then dragged him into the driver’s seat, fastened the seatbelt and set the interior alight using matchsticks and plastic bags, authorities said.

To mislead investigators and his family, Chavan placed his bracelet near the body, hoping both police and relatives would believe the charred remains were his own. But his texts to his girlfriend ultimately unraveled the deceptive scheme.

According to an NDTV report, a murder case has been registered and police continue to investigate whether Chavan acted alone or had accomplices in planning the crime, Superintendent of Police Amol Tambe said.

Authorities have not yet released further details about the identification of the deceased victim, whose remains were so badly burnt that standard forensic processes will be required to confirm identity and cause of death.