How Girlfriend's Alleged Blackmail Killed Surat Man Days Before Daughter's Wedding
Surat, Gujarat: The silk city of Gujarat is no stranger to the glitz and glamour of high-stakes real estate, but behind the polished facade of the Jolly Group empire lay a dark, corrosive secret that would eventually claim the life of its architect. Tushar Ghelani, a renowned builder whose name was synonymous with success in the city, did not fall to a business rival or a market crash. Instead, police allege he was systematically dismantled by a woman who transitioned from a desk at his reception to the very centre of his financial world.
Today, that woman, Poonam Bhadauria, sits behind bars, arrested by the Umra police and booked under Section 306 for abetment to suicide. The details emerging from the investigation paint a harrowing portrait of a man driven to the brink by a fifteen-year shadow relationship that turned into a predatory trap.
The Architect of a Ghost Empire
The tragedy began with a deceptively simple professional encounter in 2010. Bhadauria joined Ghelani’s firm as an employee, left, and then re-emerged in 2014. What followed was a decade-long “personal bond” that Ghelani’s family remained entirely oblivious to. However, while his wife and children saw a devoted patriarch, the paperwork told a different story.
Investigators discovered that Bhadauria had become a 50 per cent partner in Ghelani’s educational ventures, including the Blue Papillon Pre-Primary School, despite having made zero financial investment. Over six or seven years, a staggering Rs 1.37 crore was syphoned into her accounts as “profit.” The exploitation reportedly escalated in August 2025, when two commercial shops in the prestigious Jolly Arcade were transferred to her name without a single rupee of consideration being paid.
“Office staff told us the documents were done under pressure,” stated ACP Z R Desai. This was not a partnership of passion; it was a campaign of economic conquest.
“I Am Trapped”
As 2026 dawned, the Ghelani household should have been a place of pure joy. His daughter, Tanvi, was set to be married in early February. Invitations had been posted, and the scent of celebration was in the air. Yet, beneath the festive surface, Ghelani was drowning.
A week before the end, the builder finally broke his silence. In a heart-to-wrenching confession, he told Tanvi he felt “trapped” by Poonamben. He confessed to mental and financial abuse, admitting his “mistake” but expressing a paralysing fear: that Bhadauria would “create trouble” and “finish him off” if he did not surrender half of his entire property portfolio.
In July 2025, Tanvi and her sister had even confronted Bhadauria at her home, hoping to appeal to her humanity. The response was chilling. Bhadauria reportedly behaved insolently, declaring, “Tushar is mine… if he does not obey me, I will finish him off.”
The Final Act of Despair
The pressure reached a breaking point on the night of January 31. While the rest of the city slept, Ghelani took his licensed revolver and shot himself in the neck inside his residence. He was rushed to Mahavir Hospital, where he remained in a desperate struggle for life.
The tragedy took an even more poetic and cruel turn on February 4. As the day arrived that was meant to see his daughter walk toward a new life at her wedding, Ghelani was declared dead following a cardiac arrest. In a final act of grace, his family had initially intended to donate his organs after he was declared brain dead, but his heart failed before the process could begin.
The wedding mandap was replaced by a funeral pyre; the sounds of celebration were drowned out by the cries of a family who had only just learned the true depth of the patriarch’s suffering.
Justice in the Aftermath
Initially, Bhadauria attempted to deflect guilt by filing her own petitions against the family. However, the Umra police’s thorough investigation into the money trail and the testimonies of office staff provided the “direct involvement” needed for an arrest.
