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- On June 20, nine members of the same family were found dead in Sangli district of Maharashtra.
- Police initially suspected it was a suicide pact.
- ‘Suicide’ notes have been found from both the houses located at a distance of 1.5 km from each other.
Sangli suicide case: An investigation into the deaths of nine family members of two brothers in Maharashtra’s Sangli district, which was earlier believed to be a case of compromising suicide due to harassment by moneylenders, revealed that the dead, including four children, were allegedly poisoned to death . Police said on Monday that both a “mantrik” and his accomplice had been arrested.
According to preliminary investigation, the prime accused Abbas Mohammad Ali Bagwan allegedly killed the family of nine people with the help of his accomplice as he did not want to return the money taken from them on the pretext of unearthing “hidden treasures”. . for them.
Baghwan and Dheeraj Survase, both residents of Solapur, had allegedly killed nine members of the Vanmore family on the night of June 19 by mixing poisonous substances in tea, officials said.
Nine members of the family of two brothers, one a teacher and the other a veterinarian, were found dead on June 20 at Mhaisal village in Maharashtra’s Sangli district.
Police initially suspected it was a suicide pact and arrested 15 lenders out of the 25 accused for abetting the suicide of nine family members who had borrowed money from them.
Popat Vanmore (54), his brother and veterinarian Dr Manik Vanmore (49), their 74-year-old mother, wives and four children were found dead at their homes in Mhaisal village of Sangli district on Monday. The police had said.
‘Suicide’ notes have been found from both the houses located 1.5 km away from each other.
Inspector General of Police (Kolhapur Range) Manoj Kumar Lohia said that Bagwan, who is a “mantrik”, had taken huge amounts of money from the Vanmore brothers on the pretext of “gupt money” (hidden treasures) and helping the family locate . was repeatedly asking him to return the money as the promise regarding the treasury was not fulfilled.
A Sangli police officer said that the police stumbled upon notes left by the Vanmore brothers, in which they mentioned the names of some lenders from whom they had borrowed money.
He said that on checking the suicide notes, the police felt that something was wrong. Also, out of nine, only one bottle with a dead body was found.
“Generally, in a suicide note, the person first writes the reasons and then blames the people for the extreme step he took. In this case, the names of some people were written at the beginning of the notes. In both the notes ’ It also did not mention that the family wanted to commit suicide. It seems that the accused must have misled both the brothers to write the names of moneylenders on some pretext so that it could be passed as a suicide pact,” said the official. .
Speaking about the investigation, he said that the police tracked the movements of all the deceased, which led them to a vehicle.
“We then checked the CCTV footage installed on the roads and finally the vehicle was located in Solapur,” he said.
“Preliminary investigation suggests that the accused Mantrik and his accomplice reached the houses of Vanmores (probably on June 19) and told them that he (Bagwan) would perform some rituals to find the hidden treasure. He sent the family members to the roof of their houses, then called them down one by one and asked them to drink tea, which contained some poisonous substance.
After visiting the house of Vanmore brothers one after the other, prima facie Bagwan and Survase carried out the crime.
When asked about the motive behind the crime, the officer said that the police suspect that Bagwan killed the family members after they failed to locate the “hidden treasure” as promised. was asking for his money back.
According to the police, the Vanmore brothers had given one crore rupees to the gardener in the hope that he would get ‘gupt money’.
Sangli’s superintendent of police, Dixit Gedam, said Bagwan and Survase have been arrested and Section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code will be invoked.
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