A relationship in the western Maharashtra city of Nashik ended in bloodshed after a man stabbed his former girlfriend to death and then took his own life within hours of the killing, turning a personal dispute into a case that has left the area in shock. The accused has been identified as Sahil Lavhare, who allegedly murdered a young woman named Vaishnavi with a knife before turning up dead near the same spot just hours later.
What triggered the fight
According to Nashik police, Vaishnavi was set to marry another man, a development Sahil could not come to terms with. He was reportedly enraged over the end of their relationship and over the bright future Vaishnavi appeared to have ahead of her with someone else, and he was unwilling to let the wedding go ahead under any circumstances. Police say this one-sided obsession with stopping the marriage was ultimately what pushed him toward the killing.
A half hour argument turns deadly
Late on Friday night, Sahil called Vaishnavi to meet him near Vansampada Garden in Nashik's Indiranagar locality. The two argued fiercely for about 30 minutes over her decision to go ahead with the wedding, with Sahil repeatedly trying to talk her out of it. When Vaishnavi refused to give in to his demands, Sahil lost control, pulled out a knife he had hidden on him, and stabbed her multiple times. She died at the scene from her injuries, the half hour long argument turning into a brutal killing within moments.
The phone call that revealed the murder
The most chilling detail to emerge from the case is a phone call placed just minutes before the attack. Vaishnavi rang her fiance and told him, "Sahil is here, come quickly." Her fiance immediately left what he was doing and rushed toward the spot, staying on the line without hanging up as he listened to roughly 22 minutes of the couple's argument. Partway through the call, Sahil suddenly told him the woman had been killed, coldly informing him, "Vaishu finished." For the fiance, who had been listening to the argument unfold in real time, the news came as a devastating shock.
Manhunt ends with the accused's suicide
Once the fiance alerted the authorities, Nashik police's crime branch and local teams rushed to the scene and found Vaishnavi's body lying near Vansampada Garden. Police then launched a massive search across Nashik district to track down Sahil, with multiple teams joining the hunt. Within a few hours of the killing, however, they received word that his body had been found hanging from a tree just two kilometres from the crime scene. He had taken his own life, turning the case from a murder into a murder-suicide within the space of a single night.
Who were Vaishnavi and Sahil
Vaishnavi belonged to Maharashtra's Amravati district, while Sahil is said to be from Umarkhed in Yavatmal district. The two were in a relationship. Police are now trying to establish who told Sahil that Vaishnavi was planning to marry someone else, and the investigation into exactly how that information reached him, and how quickly the situation then spiralled out of control, is continuing.
