A 39-year-old Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) in Gujarat, Shailesh Khambhla, who was arrested for murdering his wife and two minor children and burying their bodies in pits behind his official residence in Bhavnagar, was involved in an extramarital affair with a female colleague that lasted nearly four years, police sources revealed.
According to investigators, Khambhla first befriended the woman forest department employee in 2022, and their relationship soon developed into a full-fledged affair. While it remains unclear whether the woman had any direct involvement in the crime, police have questioned her extensively in connection with the case, officials confirmed.
Khambhla had recently been transferred to Bhavnagar. His 40-year-old wife Nayana, 13-year-old daughter Pritha, and 9-year-old son Bhavya continued to reside in Surat but had come to Bhavnagar for a short vacation. Soon after their arrival, the three went missing, raising alarm among relatives and triggering a large-scale search operation.
On November 5, Khambhla approached the local police himself and filed a missing person complaint, claiming that his security guard had seen his wife and children leaving the house in an auto-rickshaw while he was away on official duty. However, when questioned, the security guard categorically denied witnessing any such incident. Police said Khambhla’s “strange behaviour” during interrogation and his apparent “lack of concern” over the disappearance of his family members immediately aroused suspicion.
A preliminary examination of the accused’s call data records revealed frequent contact with a junior forest official, Girish Vania. It emerged that on November 2, Khambhla had instructed Vania to dig two pits behind his government quarters, ostensibly for dumping garbage. Vania carried out the order. Four days later, on November 6, Khambhla again contacted Vania and asked him to arrange a dumper truck to fill the trenches, claiming that a nilgai (blue bull) had accidentally fallen into one of the pits and needed to be buried.
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Acting on these inconsistencies, police excavated the pits on November 16 and recovered the bodies of Nayana, Pritha, and Bhavya.
Khambhla was placed under arrest the same day.
During sustained interrogation, the ACF confessed to the triple murder and admitted that the killings were premeditated. He revealed that after smothering his wife and children with a pillow, he sent a text message from his wife’s phone to his own number, stating that she was leaving him to live with someone else. He then switched the phone to aeroplane mode and disposed of it.
Police said the primary motive appears to be a prolonged marital discord. Khambhla told investigators that his wife had been pressuring him to shift the entire family to Bhavnagar and live together, but he did not want to leave his parents in Surat and resisted the demand, leading to frequent arguments. The ongoing dispute, coupled with his extramarital relationship, is believed to have driven him to execute the planned murders.
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