Finance firm head burns man alive to fake own death for Rs 1 crore insurance payout

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Ganesh Chavan (35), the district head of a private finance firm, allegedly burnt a drunk man alive in a car in Latur to claim a Rs 1 crore term insurance payout and wipe out mounting debts, police said on Monday.

The meticulously planned crime was aimed at ensuring the insurance benefit reached his family and his liabilities got wiped out. Within 24 hours of the crime, the Latur police tracked the accused on Monday using technical analysis and a lead linked to a woman with whom he had an affair.

Superintendent of police Amol Tambe said the accused was under financial stress, with loans totalling Rs 97 lakh taken to buy flats in Mumbai and Latur. "The burden was aggravated by high personal expenses by his wife and the woman he was involved with. He believed that if he was declared dead, the Rs 1 crore term insurance would clear the liabilities. This belief led to a cold-blooded murder," Tambe said.

The case came to light after the police received a Dial 112 call around 12.30am on Sunday reporting a car on fire on the Ausa-Vanvada Road. Fire tenders extinguished the blaze and the police found a burnt human skeleton inside the vehicle. An accidental death was initially registered and DNA samples were preserved for identification.

The car was found to be registered in the name of a relative but was regularly used by Chavan. When contacted, Chavan's wife told the police that he left home around 10pm on Saturday, claiming he was going to hand over a laptop to a friend, and had not returned.

Relatives later identified a metal kada from the remains and believed the body was Chavan's. The police agreed to hand over the remains to the family on the condition that they should bury them instead of burning them.

However, inconsistencies during the probe raised suspicion that he was alive. The postmortem of the skeleton was conducted at the spot.

"After arresting Chavan, he revealed that 50-year-old Govind Yadav, who was heavily under the influence of liquor, sought a lift from him. The accused gave him a lift and later stopped at a dhaba and bought chicken. Chavan drove towards the isolated Vanvada road, assessing the surroundings while Yadav ate a little and fell asleep in the car," said local crime branch inspector Sudhakar Bavkar.

The police said Chavan then dragged Yadav to the driver's seat, fastened the seat belt tightly, and placed matchsticks and plastic bags on the seat. He poured petrol inside the car, left the fuel tank cap open to accelerate the blaze, splashed petrol outside, and set the vehicle on fire before fleeing on foot.

Sub-divisional police officer Kumar Chaudhary said evidence showed the victim was alive when the car was set ablaze. "The victim was burnt alive while intoxicated, and was unable to resist. Positioning him in the driver's seat was meant to pass off the death as that of the accused," he said.

Chavan escaped to Kolhapur and then to Vijaydurg in Sindhudurg district. As doubts mounted, the local crime branch joined the probe. LCB inspector Sudhakar Bavkar said phone analysis, travel data, and financial trails exposed the deception. "Surveillance of a woman with whom the accused had an extra-marital affair provided a vital lead to trace him to Sindhudurg on Monday," Bavkar said.

Ausa police station inspector R K Dambale said Chavan admitted that he had planned either suicide or murder to trigger the insurance claim. The police said forensic confirmation was underway.

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