After 11 years of investigation involving 10 investigating officers – nine from the Gujarat police and one from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the murder case of Rashmi Bhave, whose throat was slit with a surgical knife, still remains unsolved.
Testimonies were gathered from 157 witnesses and 255 documentary pieces of evidence were analysed in the case. A Rs 10 lakh reward was offered for clues, yet these efforts did not yield any results. A special CBI court accepted the closure report in the unsolved murder case.
The investigation report was submitted to the Special CBI court on February 7, 2022. CBI’s investigating officer PI Ketan Mehta submitted the closure report due to lack of any substantial evidence against anyone.
No robbery attempt
On February 22, 2013, Dr Vivek Bhave, a resident of Radhe Arcade residency in Kudasan, Gandhinagar, filed a complaint with the Sector 7 police regarding his wife Rashmi Bhave’s murder. Her throat was slit in the day in her house with no apparent robbery attempt.
According to the first FIR filed, when Dr Vivek Bhave arrived home around 2 pm with his children, who were in Class 8 and Class 2, he found the house locked. On entering, he discovered his wife lying in a pool of blood. Vivek immediately called his father, who lived in Sector 21, some friends, and the police control room.
As the Sector 7 police failed to find any clues, the investigation was transferred to the Local Crime Branch (LCB) Gandhinagar in March 2013. Subsequently, the case was handed over to the CID (Crime and Railways), where the case was investigated until August 2016. The case remained unsolved.
The police was receiving a great deal of criticism for its inability to crack the case. As a result, a special investigation team (SIT) was formed which probed the case till April 2017.
CBI probe ordered
Meanwhile, in 2016, Rashmi’s brother Major Raghuveer Sirode approached the Gujarat High Court by filing a special criminal application seeking a fair probe into the case. Acting on the petition, the high court ordered a CBI probe into the murder case on April 20.
No motive was found behind the murder. The first suspect was Vivek, but there was no strong motive. There had been domestic feuds as were common between husband and wife. Rashmi’s friends Vibhav Ghughari and Avdhoot Chitale were also suspects, but their presence was confirmed at their respective places in Maharashtra, according to police sources.
The investigating officers, in their reports, named Bhave, Ghughari, and Chitale as suspects. However, they failed to gather prima facie evidence against these suspects. Hence the case has been closed.
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