Man, nephew kill his daughter & her male friend, ‘throw bodies in well’; case of ‘honour killing’, bodies found: Police

ON FRIDAY evening, when 21-year-old Rahul Jiva Rabari, whose brother Naveen and his girlfriend Nathi alias Sonu Raja Rabari, had been missing since February 3, heard that a large convoy of police and firefighters, was headed towards Khambhala village, he was in Bhuj city at his auto garage shop that he launched just two days ago.

He shut the shop, drove 60-odd km and reached the site where a bulldozer was being used to excavate a well.

In the hours that followed, the semi-decomposed bodies of the young couple would be unearthed and Naveen would have to identify his brother only from the clothes he was wearing the last time he saw him – on the day he was murdered.

Rahul’s family, which had just emerged from grieving their eldest son Bhikha, who had died in an accident four months ago, was thrown into further despair after losing their second son, Naveen.

On March 13, the Nakhatrana police in Kutch, hours after allegedly getting a confession from Vanka alias Raja Pena Rabari (43) that he, along with his nephew (sister’s son) Soma alias Paba Samar Rabari (24) had choked his daughter Sonu and her male friend Naveen to death, elicited the location of where the bodies were buried, recovered them and sent them to the GG General Hospital in Jamnagar for post-mortem examination.

For Inspector J D Sarvaiya, this wouldn’t be the first time having to deal with a case involving bodies of murdered victims being recovered from a well.

In fact, just four days before finding these bodies, he filed a chargesheet in a case that dates back to December 2025, where a man named Kishor Lakhamshi Maheshwari and a juvenile were booked for killing his friend, 20-year-old Ramesh Puja Maheshwari, by assaulting him with a spade, cut his body into four pieces and buried them, distributing the parts and other evidence across three borewells and a cotton field in Muru village of Nakhatrana.

However, while the December case was solved in a week, it took 38 days to crack this particular case, which involved detailed observation of Sonu’s family, secret meetings in the police station, repeated questioning, destroyed evidence, and a “ritual” of the community that led to Vanka alias Raja Pena Rabari choking his daughter to death in yet another case of “honour killing” 25 years into the 21st century.

Naveen, a truck driver by profession, and Sonu, both from the same community, went missing on February 3, just hours after Rahul, the complainant in this case, had met his brother and his girlfriend.

In the FIR filed at Nakhatrana police station, Rahul, a resident of Nana Angiya village on the outskirts of Nakhatrana town, stated that he had filed a missing person complaint at the same police station on February 5 after his brother didn’t return home and he and his cousins had only found his two-wheeler in Kotada Jadodar village, which lay 13 km west of his village.

The Nakhatrana police were told by Rahul that it was not just Naveen – Sonu had also gone missing.

So the police went to her home as well to investigate.

It was only two days after that police visit, on February 7, that Sonu’s father, the main accused in her murder, filed a missing person application for her at the same police station.

This itself was the first piece of suspicion, said police, because in cases where couples elope, it is usually the woman’s family who first approach the police and yet, this family informed the authorities only four days after she went missing and only after being approached by the police who were looking for Naveen.

Inspector J D Sarvaiya toldTheIndian Expressthat he had formed a special team to keep tracking this case to find the young couple that had so utterly vanished off the face of the earth that not a single person in the entire area between a town and three villages had seen them.

He said, “Sonu’s family members misled the police and also destroyed evidence after killing her and Naveen.

Sonu’s family claimed to the police that she had taken money and jewellery from the house and eloped.

We suspected Sonu’s father and cousin and this was reinforced by the Call Data Records which showed Sonu had spoken to her father on the day she went missing.

And so, we began keeping a watch on the family members and we held a meeting each night to discuss updates after all other staff had left for the day, compartmentalising information on a need-to-know basis.”
Since the police didn’t find any evidence of the couple’s movements of them leaving the village or the taluka, it only reinforced their suspicion that something tragic could have befallen them within this area.

After a month of this operation, having confirmed their suspicions to a large extent, Inspector Sarvaiya said Sonu’s father and cousin were detained and interrogated again, leading to the alleged confession and Vanka alias Raja Pena Rabari showing the police where they had hidden the bodies – in a well located on a farm in Khambhala village, 3.5 km north of Kotada Jadodar, where Naveen’s two-wheeler had been found abandoned.

The official police statement, quoting from the alleged confession of Vanka alias Raja Pena Rabari, said, “On February 3, around 8 pm, my daughter Nathi alias Sonu did not return home.

Upon enquiry, I found out she was in Kotada meeting with Naveen Jiva Rabari with whom she had been in a relationship for two years.

My nephew Soma and I met her there and asked her to return home, but she refused.

So we took Naveen and Sonu on the road to Khambhala and called my wife and younger son to help convince Sonu to return home, but she was insistent on going with Naveen.

So, we decided to kill both of them and my wife started beating them both up.

I strangled my daughter Sonu and Soma strangled Naveen to death.

One by one, we carried the bodies on a motorcycle to a nearby well and dumped them inside.”
Speaking about the motive in this case, inspector Sarvaiya said, “The accused primarily said that they wanted to have a traditional marriage where a son and daughter from one house are married to another brother-sister duo from another family which was not possible in this case.

However, we will be investigating this further when we get remand from the court.”
In the FIR, filed at 11:55 pm on March 13, Sonu’s father Vanka alias Raja Pena Rabari and her cousin Soma alias Paba Samat Rabari were booked under BNS sections for murder, destruction of evidence, and criminal conspiracy.

Later on, Sonu’s mother and a juvenile were both also added as co-accused in the case.

All the accused were placed under arrest in the early hours on March 14 and will be presented at a local court in Nakhatrana where the police will seek remand for further investigation.

Brendan Dabhi works with The Indian Express, focusing his comprehensive reporting primarily on Gujarat.

He covers the region's most critical social, legal, and administrative sectors, notably specializing at the intersection of health, social justice, and disasters.

Health and Public Policy: He has deep expertise in healthcare issues, including rare diseases, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), the complex logistics of organ transplants, and public health challenges like drug-resistant TB and heat health surveillance.

His on-ground reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic and Mucormycosis was critical in exposing healthcare challenges faced by marginalized communities in Gujarat.

Social Justice and Legal Administration: He reports on the functioning of the legal and police system, including the impact of judicial philosophy, forensics and crucial administrative reforms (.

He covers major surveillance and crackdown exercises by the Gujarat police and security on the international border.

Disaster and Crisis Management: His work closely tracks how government and civic bodies respond to large-scale crises, providing essential coverage on the human and administrative fallout of disasters including cyclones, floods, conflict, major fires and reported extensively on the AI 171 crash in Ahmedabad.

Civic Infrastructure and Governance: Provides timely reports on critical civic failures,  including large scale infrastructure projects by the railways and civic bodies, as well as  the enforcement of municipal regulations and their impact on residents and heritage....

Read More
Stay updated with the latest -Click here to follow us on Instagram