India Post News Service

LOS ANGELES: The Jayprakash Dhanak story continues to baffle police who are faced with two crime scenes that are literally 20 miles apart. Last Monday, May 21, 56 year old Jayprakash Dhanak, was declared missing from his home. His wife, Leela Dhanak, was found at 11 pm badly beaten and unconscious in the driveway of the house next door while the Dhanak house was discovered in flames.

Later on at 4:15 in the morning of May 22, near a bike trail near University Drive and Ridgeline Drive in Irvine, where a small brush fire was burning, Dhanak’s daughter, Karishma, 20, was found dead with an unidentified body next to her which may be the missing father. "We think the other body is the father, but we have not confirmed that until the dental records are examined," said Sgt. Rick Martinez of Anaheim Police Department. "Currently we’re following all leads but it’s a very difficult case because we have two separate crime scenes, so we are asking members of the Indian community to contact us if they have any information regarding a motive of this homicide," he said.

Two men driving what may have been a white mini-van were reportedly involved in the beating of Leela Dhanak, 53. Members of the Indian community who may be able to provide information confidentially can call (714) 765-1944. Jayprakash Dhanak served more than two years in prison after pleading guilty to mail fraud in 2003, and lived with his wife and daughter in a two story 2000 square foot East Camino Correr house in Anaheim Hills.

At the time of her death, Karishma Dhanak attended Orange Coast College. Shayona Dhanak, a second daughter, was not living at home and is a freshman at UC Irvine majoring in business and economics. Dhanak pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud in 2003 for illegally over billing the US Postal Service for millions of dollars of mail he handled as a manager of a Santa Ana direct mail business, Mastersort. "We’re currently talking to a second daughter of the Dhanak’s who was not living at the house," said Sgt Martinez adding that Leela Dhanak will be questioned but that she is in no condition to answer questions due to the seriousness of her injuries.

"There are no firm leads. We have been getting some tips. It’s a difficult case at this point. Two sites from Anaheim all the way to Irvine. So we’ve got a lot of work to do to track down potential leads and piece everything together. "There’s nothing standard about it. We have a crime that took place at 11o’clock at night and then bodies discovered five hours later – we don’t know what happened between the twenty miles and five hours.

Police say they are looking for at least two unknown assailants who witnesses said were seen beating Leela Dhanak with a blunt instrument outside her home before speeding away in what some described as a white van. Neighbors and friends described the Dhanaks as mild-mannered and religious people who largely kept to themselves. A shocked spokesperson for the BAPS center, a Hindu temple the Dhanak family attended in Whittier, said, "They came every Sunday, and they never talked about any problems, nothing."