A day after Bhowanipore businessman Bhavya Lakhani was found dead, his wife Neha told The Telegraph she had “a bad feeling” about “the whole thing” and so asked him to turn on his phone’s “Live Location” when he was on his way to meet his business associate Anirban Gupta on Monday.
Gupta has been arrested along with an accomplice and charged with murder.
“I never had a good feeling about him (Anirban Gupta),” Neha said.
“Every time my husband spoke to him over the phone, I used to tell him something was amiss. It was my gut feeling. That day, when he told me he was going to meet him at Nimta, which is quite far, I was concerned. I told him to turn on his Live Location. He did not even know how to do it. I taught him over the phone while he was in the car,” Neha said on Thursday.
A relative of the Lakhanis said Lakhani left his Ballygunge office around 11.30am on Monday and shared his Live Location thrice till he reached Nimta around 1.15pm.
Usually, Lakhani and Neha spoke to each other several times during a working day, sharing tidbits about their activities, the relative said. “He was very attached to his family. They would speak often throughout the day.”
The Live Location of a phone can be shared on WhatsApp. The person receiving the sender’s location can see the live movement and route through which he or she is travelling. The Live Location can be turned on for 15 minutes, one hour or for eight hours at a stretch unless terminated midway by the sender. In case the Internet connection is weak, it often has to be refreshed by the sender so the recipient can see the updated live location.
On Monday, Lakhani’s Live Location feature stopped around 1.15pm. According to the family, Neha called her husband at 2.57pm.
“That was the last time we heard from him. He told Neha he and his associate (Anirban Gupta) were about to start for New Town to meet Gupta’s senior in office,” a family member said.
“He said Gupta was taking a long time to get ready and that the meeting was scheduled at 4pm in New Town. Neha told him she would call him around 4.30 once the meeting was over. He disconnected saying ‘Main nikal raha hu (I am about to start).”
The call lasted 27 seconds.
The family tried to contact Lakhani several times after that. Every time, the phone kept ringing.
On one occasion, the phone was disconnected followed by a template message saying “I am in a meeting”.
“This text message came around 5.42pm when we were trying to call him. It was very surprising to all of us as he would never use template messages. He did not even know how to send them,” said a relative.
Sometime later, Lakhani’s sister sent him a WhatsApp message asking where he was. The message did not get delivered. It showed a “single tick”, said another family member.
The family continued to call Lakhani. “Around 7.29pm, someone answered the call. It was not him. The unknown man said if we wanted the phone, we should reach a particular Sulabh (urinal) in Sovabazar,” a family member said.
The family met a person at the spot and got back Lakhani’s phone, but there was no trace of him.
The family took the phone and headed to Ballygunge police station to report Lakhani’s disappearance.