Jaynti Tadvi (35) was found hanging from a tree in Chanod village of Vadodara late in the night of January 22. Police had found no external injury marks on the body and the postmortem report revealed asphyxiation as the cause of death.

According to the police, the accused had launched a manhunt on the night of January 22 along with other villagers to look for Jaynti claiming that he had not returned home from work that night. (Representational Image)

Five days after a man was found hanging from a tree close to his house, four persons, including the deceased’s father-in-law, were arrested for allegedly killing him and making it appear like a suicide.

Jaynti Tadvi (35) was found hanging from a tree in Chanod village of Vadodara late in the night of January 22. Police had found no external injury marks on the body and the postmortem report revealed asphyxiation as the cause of death. Following this a case of accidental death was registered and the last rites performed.

However, raising suspicion over Jaynti’s death, his father Magan who lives in Surendranagar approached the police and informed them about Jaynti’s wife Sumi’s "extra-marital affair".

While they were unaware of who the person was, Jaynti’s family had demanded an investigation into the death. Jaynti and Sumi were married seven years ago and have five children together.

The police found out that Sumi had an affair with Aklesh Tadvi, a resident of the same village. When the police questioned him, he confessed that he along with Sumi’s father Narayan Nayak had killed Jaynti at his house and then hung his body from the tree to make it look like suicide.

According to the police, the accused had launched a manhunt on the night of January 22 along with other villagers to look for Jaynti claiming that he had not returned home from work that night. On finding his body hanging from the tree, they had informed his family that he had committed suicide.

"The victim’s father had raised suspicion over his death, which is why we started investigating the possibility of a murder. When questioned, Aklesh confessed that he had killed Jaynti with the help of Narayan. The victim had fought with his wife that night and had even allegedly beaten her up. Angry over this, the two accused first thrashed him and then strangulated him with a saree. They then took help of two other accused – Pinesh Nayak and Naresh Nayak – to hang the body from the tree with the saree," said investigating officer JM Padhiyar.

"The victim’s wife was a witness to the murder but as per preliminary investigation she was not involved in it. We are still investigating her role. She was threatened to not speak to the police otherwise her children would be harmed," Padhiyar added. All the accused have been booked under IPC sections 302 (murder and 201(causing disappearance of evidence of offence).

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