NRI missing
wife ran off with another man, police cost $250,000 for search
Will Police Recover Quarter
Million Dollar Investigation Costs?
CHICAGO, Jan 02, 2008
Trupti Patel
The prosecutors of Cook County and police said criminal
charges will not be filed against Anu Solanki, 24 and Karan C.
Jani, 23 she fled with. They had been trying to determine if she
could be charged with a false report of a crime. But at this point
the evidence is insufficient to prove that Solanki knowingly took
substantial steps to convince police that she was a crime victim
Authorities have not said whether they are now
considering filing civil suit to recover investigation costs,
where their burden of proof would be much less than in a criminal
case but without additional evidence even winning in civil court
is doubtful.
NRI woman
basically wanted out of her marriage- no hoax
CHICAGO, December 31, 2007
Trupti Patel
Bill Cunningham, chief of staff to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart
said, “She told us that she, in no way, meant to concoct
some sort of hoax or leave the impression she fell in the water.
She also expressed regret and embarrassment about the reaction.”
The “reaction” was an intensive, more than $250,000
search of the river near Wheeling for Anu Solanki.
It is confirmed that she really used the river trip to meet up
with Karan C. Jani, who had rented a car and driven from Los Angeles
to get her. The two then drove to Jani’s apartment in Los
Angeles. Solanki and Jani had been in contact for more than a
year. She met him through a mutual friend before getting married
to Dignesh, whom she had known for three years before the wedding
On Dec. 28, Anu Solanki boarded a plane in Los Angeles and returned
to Chicago at 8:30 p.m. She met sheriff’s investigators
and went to the courthouse in Skokie, where Solanki gave the statement.
Anu Solanki told investigators:
- She was unhappy in her marriage, but her husband was not abusive
or cruel
- She basically wanted out of her marriage and wanted to make
a clean break.
- She apparently had begun looking for an L.A.-area apartment
and a female roommate.
- When Jani spotted online news coverage of the river search
and he encouraged her to contact her family and she did.
Her cousin said that Dignesh was just working all the time and
they had a couple of problems.
Dignesh Solanki told the media:
- She told him that she was going to the river to dispose of
a broken religious idol after getting off work as a cashier
at a nearby hotel gift shop. He became worried when he couldn't
reach her several hours later and, along with a friend, discovered
her car.
- He worried his bride could have fallen into the chilly water
while ritually disposing of a broken Hindu idol used in their
May 6 wedding.
- He never dreamed his wife might have run away with another
man
- He remembers the "romantic" text messages he noticed
on her cell phone just two days after they were married.
- He gave her a chance because she promised him she would be
100 percent faithful. One day before leaving, his wife told
him she wanted to have a baby.
- He is not the one who's going to punish that guy and God will
punish the guy. That's what I believe. He messed my life up.
- She could have told him if she needed a break from him. The
police have spent all this time and money. He don't know why
she did this.
Solanki's family members, including her parents and two siblings,
drove from their home in Charlottesville, Va., to help pass out
leaflets with her photo.
NRI woman
is alive -She left the Chicago area with a male friend
CHICAGO, December 28, 2007
Trupti Patel
Police Chief Richard Waszak and Cook County Sheriff Thomas J.
Dart, in a joint press conference said, it is believe that Solanki
left the Chicago area with a male friend, identified as 23-year-old
Karan Jani. He is a recent graduate of the University of Southern
California who may still live in that state. The investigators
discovered cell phone records which indicate that Solanki left
the area on her own accord.
Jani placed several cell phone calls to Solanski while she was
at work Monday morning at a gift shop in a Wheeling hotel, according
to a police news release. Those phone calls originated from the
Wheeling area. Solanki left work shortly after noon and her car
was found approximately four hours later, parked near the Des
Plaines River in the Dam One Woods in Wheeling, less than two
miles from the hotel.
Anyone who has had contact with Solanki should call police at
847-294-4733.
NRI woman
may have fallen into Des Plaines River while disposing of statue
December 27, 2007
Trupti Patel
NRI Dignesh Solanki told police that on Dec. 24, his wife Anu
Solanki went to discard the broken Hindu statue of Ganesh in the
river to avoid bad luck. You're not supposed to keep it in the
house because it's broken. Her car was found with its engine running
in a forest preserve parking lot. A bag and a laptop computer
were missing from her car.
The police made a daylong search of the Des Plaines River by
divers, police dogs and a helicopter failed to find the Indian
girl. On Wednesday, police and rescue workers in boats swept a
six-mile stretch of the river downstream from the parking lot.A
sonar-imaging system was used to check the murky waters and divers
waded into the river below a small concrete dam near the park
to hunt for her. Search dogs prowled the banks of the river, while
a helicopter hovered low overhead.
Authorities were trying to determine whether Anu Solanki, who
lived with her husband in unincorporated Des Plaines, might have
fallen into the frigid river while trying to place the statue
in the water.
Dignesh Solanki said:
- He last spoke to his wife about 11:30 a.m. Monday while she
was at work and said she seemed in good spirits.
- The statue had been shipped to them after the wedding but
was broken in transit. She wanted to stop at the forest preserve
after work to properly dispose of a Hindu relationship statue
of Ganesh, which had been used at their wedding
- We were married May 6 in New Jersey after dating for nearly
three years.