BHOPAL: Residents of Lake Pearl Colony in Bhopal’s Khajuri Sadak police station area were shocked on Monday after 45-year-old RTO inspector Minakshi Gokhale was found brutally murdered inside a rented house, while her alleged lover, Pawan Kumar Dwivedi, was found hanging from a nearby tree.
The chilling crime came to light at around 6 am, when the police’s emergency first response Dial 112 got the information about Minakshi’s killing from her friend Kritika, who was present in another room of the house with Minakshi’s three-year-old daughter.
“Our team rushed to the spot and found Minakshi’s body lying in one of the rooms with a blood stained hammer abandoned near the body. Minakshi’s three-year-old daughter was present in the house with her friend Kritika, who had informed the Dial 112 about the incident at around 7 am,” a senior Bhopal police official said.
As the police team probed the matter, a man Pawan Kumar Dwivedi (believed to be Minakshi’s alleged lover) was found hanging to death from a tree around 200 meters from Minakshi’s house. A bank passbook was found in his pocket.
“The blood stains on Pawan’s trousers strongly suggested that he first pummelled Minakshi to death with the hammer and then died by suicide,” deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Adarsh Kant Shukla told the TNIE.
The deep injuries on Mikashi’s head and forehead narrated the cruelty with which she was killed possibly in the house’s courtyard and the body then dragged back into the room.
“The killing happened possibly between 1 and 2 am, while Minakshi’s daughter was sleeping with her mother’s friend in the other room. The circumstantial evidence, particularly packed bags suggested that Minakshi was to return to her workplace in Datia on Monday, but a possible altercation with Pawan late in the night, might have triggered the horrendous killing and the subsequent suicide,” Shukla added.
Posted at Regional Transport Office (RTO) in northern MP’s Datia district as inspector, Minakshi Gokhale had divorced from husband around two years back and had a three-year-old daughter from the unsuccessful marriage.
She had taken a house in Bhopal’s Lake Pearl Colony, which was largely used by Pawan. Minkashi came with her daughter there at regular intervals and lived with Pawan. “Local residents thought Minkashi and Pawan were a couple,” investigators said.
Primary police probe based on statements of Minakshi’s kin who rushed to Bhopal, her friend Kritika and other known people, suggested that Pawan, a native of Sidhi district of eastern MP, who was in a relationship with Minakshi wanted to marry her, but the RTO inspector wasn’t ready for it, which possibly strained their relationship.
Pawan previously ran private coaching classes in Indore, but later shifted to Bhopal to prepare for government recruitment tests. Both, Minakshi and Pawan knew each other since both prepared for competitive examinations in Indore some years back. Originally hailing from Indore only, Minakshi knew Pawan from Indore only.
