AHMEDABAD: Occult rituals aimed at calming the “restless spirit” of a young woman in Qutubnagar, Vatva, prompted the city crime branch to pursue an unusual lead. Investigators eventually excavated a septic tank at an abandoned house believed to be haunted and recovered a woman’s teeth and bones.Police said she was allegedly killed by her boyfriend and buried in a well sometime between July and Aug 1992. On a rainy night that year, Farzana Radhanpuri, 40, from Mumbai, allegedly had a heated argument with her boyfriend, Shamsuddin Khedawala, over equal rights to his property, as granted to his first wife.The argument between them took a deadly turn when Shamsuddin, along with his other accomplices — brother Iqbal Khedawala from Shah-e-Alam, who held her legs, and Abdul Javrawala from Vatva, who held her hands — allegedly strangled her. The incident took place in the house of another accomplice, Shaliyabiwi Pathan, in Qutubnagar.After the murder, Javrawala allegedly summoned labourers to dig up the house’s septic tank, placed the body inside, and sealed it with soil, sand, and cement. The accused then went their separate ways and resumed their lives.
However, according to investigators, lingering guilt and fear manifested in the form of claims that the victim’s spirit haunted the premises. Family members of one of the accused reportedly spoke of apparitions and impending misfortune. Over the years, these beliefs deepened, particularly after the deaths of several individuals connected to the case, including the prime accused in 2015.The story of the restless spirit in the house strengthened as years passed, giving a solid reason to believe in the deceased woman’s curse when Shamsuddin died due to cardiac arrest in 2015. Shaliyabiwi also died a few years ago, and Javrawala also passed away.After that, the family left the house, which came to be known as “bhoot bangla” (the house for ghosts). The murmur around the bhoot bangla reached the ears of police, who smelt a dead rat in the case and did not leave it as just another case of a haunted house.Cops kept a watch over the occult practices taking place in the house and activated informers around the suspects, who confirmed that a murder had taken place here in 1992. The suspects were trying to get rid of the “ghost” who was killed and buried.After verifying the information with multiple informers, cops raided the house on Wednesday morning and began digging up the place where the body was allegedly buried.Till late evening, cops found five to six teeth and seven to eight bones of the victim, which have been sent for forensic analysis.“The breakthrough came following a peculiar development within the suspect’s family, where members reportedly began experiencing recurring hallucinations about the deceased, leading to heightened fear and psychological distress. To seek relief, they turned toward occult practices and remedies, during which critical information surfaced. Acting swiftly on this input, the crime branch initiated a focused inquiry that ultimately led to the discovery of the remains and the detection of the crime,” said a senior crime branch officer.
