Sangli family deaths not suicide, but murder: Probe
PUNE: A week after nine members of a family in Mhaisal, Sangli were found dead in their homes, reportedly by suicide, a police probe has revealed that they were victims of a mass murder allegedly committed by a god-man and an accomplice.
Senior police officials of the Miraj rural station on Sunday arrested tantrik (god-man) Abbas Mohammad Bagwan (48) and his driver, Dheeraj Chandrakant Survase (30) from Solapur and charged them under section 302 (murder) of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
A first information report (FIR) was filed on June 20 charging 25 persons (it did not include Bagwan or Survase) under sections 306, 341, 504, of the IPC as well several sections of the Maharashtra money lending (regulation) Act and the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (prevention of atrocities) Act.
On June 20, brothers Popat Vanmore (56), an arts teacher, and Dr Manik Vanmore (49), a veterinarian, as well as their 72-year-old mother, wives (aged 48 and 45), and their children (the youngest was 15) were found dead in two separate houses a kilometre apart in Mhaisal town. Six of the bodies were discovered in the veterinarian’s house when a milkman peered through the window as the no one had answered his doorbell.
Initial investigations indicated that the families were in debt, and owed more than Rs 1 crore to local money lenders who were charging them exorbitant interest rates. Two suicide notes were also reportedly found at both locations, naming the money lenders whom the two brothers had borrowed from.
The police suspect that Bagwan and Survase planted the notes to divert suspicion from them.
According to Sangli Superintendent of Police Dixit Gedam, the probe officials gathered from friends and relatives of the victims that both brothers were in contact with a “mantrik” to