3 of family in Kandivali and driver found dead

Shop owner alerted police after seeing the driver with a sickle in building compound and the subsequent screams for help

MUMBAI: A woman, her two daughters, and their driver were found dead in a three-storey building, which used to be a hospital, in Kandivali West on late Wednesday night.

Police suspect that one of the deceased, the 17-year-old daughter, and the driver first killed the woman and her 24-year-old daughter from previous marriage, and then ended their own lives.

Around 11.30 pm, the owner of a paan shop just outside the run-down structure saw the driver, 60, with a sickle in the compound and a few minutes later heard women screaming for help. Suspecting that something was amiss, he peeped into the building but could not see anything. He dialled the police control room.

“I heard screams and since I had seen the driver with a sickle in his hand, I knew something was wrong,” said the shop owner, who did not wish to be named.

A police patrolling van reached the spot at 11.40 pm. On finding the main gate locked, the team broke it open to enter the building.

“There was blood on the stairs. On the second floor, the police team found the bodies of the woman, 45, and her daughter from her first husband. Both of them had sustained severe injuries,” deputy commissioner of police (zone 11) Vishal Thakur said, adding that the marks on their hands suggested that they were not killed in their sleep.

On further search, the police officers found the driver and the 17-year-old daughter dead, in a suspected suicide, on the first floor.

Four notes were found in the driver’s pockets. “Two notes were written by the driver and addressed to the woman’s second husband, who is currently staying with his younger son in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. One suicide note was written by the teenager for her father,” an officer from Kandivali police station said, adding they were examining the fourth note. The police conducted a panchnama and sent the four bodies for post-mortem to Shatabdi Hospital.

The officer said they had recovered the sickle, purportedly used to kill the motherdaughter duo. “We have registered a murder case and sent the sickle to the forensic science laboratory in Kalina for chemical and DNA analyses of the blood stains on it.”

The officers investigating the case said the second husband’s mother was a renowned doctor in Kandivali and the hospital was in her name, but when she died 15 years ago it was closed down. The woman and her daughters began staying there. The driver, who was employed by the second husband years ago, also stayed with them. In one of his suicide notes, which he had written in Hindi, the driver expressed his unhappiness as the second husband

and the woman used to fight and the man mostly lived in his hometown in Indore with his nine-year-old son, a police officer said.

“Since the driver had been living with the family, he was attached to the younger daughter and her father,” Thakur said, adding that the driver’s suicide notes talked about the family disputes which appeared to be the reason behind the murders.

The second husband told the police that the family had gone to Indore last week to attend a close relative’s funeral. All four, including the driver, returned to Mumbai by road on Sunday. The man and his son were supposed to come to Mumbai on Thursday, but did not, a police officer said.

Since I had seen the driver with a sickle in his hand, I knew something was wrong SHOP OWNER

(If you need support or know someone who does, please reach out to a mental health specialist.) Helplines: Aasra: 022 2754 6669; Sneha India Foundation: +914424640050