Maharashtra: Twist in Sangli case, two held for poisoning family of nine to death

Investigations into the death of nine members of the family of two brothers in Maharashtrarsquos Sangli district which was earlier suspected to be a case of suicide pact due to harassment by money lenders revealed that the deceased including four children were allegedly poisoned to death by a ldquomantrikrdquo and his accomplice both of whom arrested police said on MondayAs per the preliminary probe the main accused Abbas Mohammad Ali Bagwan allegedly killed the family of nine with the help of his accomplice as he didnrsquot want to return the money he had taken from them under the pretext of locating a ldquohidden treasurerdquo for themBagwan and Dheeraj Surawase both residents of Solapur allegedly poisoned nine members of the Vanmore family to death by mixing poisonous substance in tea probably on the night of June 19 officials saidAlso Read Sangli shocker 9 of family end lives in two homesNine members of a family of two brothers ndash one of them a teacher and the other a veterinarian ndash were found dead in Maharashtrarsquos Sangli districtrsquos Mhaisal village on June 20Police had initially suspected that it was a suicide pact and arrested 15 lenders of the 25 accused on the charges of abetment of suicide of the nine members of the family that had borrowed money from themPopat Vanmore 54 who worked as a teacher his brother and veterinarian Dr Manik Vanmore 49 their 74yearold mother wives and four children were found dead at their houses in Mhaisal village of Sangli district on Monday police had saidlsquoSuicidersquo notes were found from the two houses located 15 km apart from each otherInspector General of Police Kolhapur range Manoj Kumar Lohiya said Bagwan who is a ldquomantrikrdquo had taken a huge amount of money from the Vanmore brothers under the pretext of helping them explore ldquogupt dhanrdquo hidden treasure and the family was frequently asking him to return the money as the promise regarding the treasure was not fulfilledA Sangli Police official said the police had stumbled upon the notes purportedly left behind by the Vanmore brothers in which they had mentioned the names of some lenders from whom they had borrowed the moneyHe said the police felt something was amiss when they examined the suicide notes Also a bottle was found with only one of the nine bodiesldquoGenerally in a suicide note the person first writes the reason and then blames the people for the extreme step he is taking In this case the names of some people were written at the start of the notes Both the notes didnrsquot even mention that the family wanted to commit suicide It seems that the accused might have misled the two brothers to write the names of the money lenders under some pretext to pass it off as a suicide pactrdquo the official saidSpeaking about the investigation he said the police tracked the movements of all the deceased which led them to a vehicleldquoWe then checked the CCTV footages on the roads and finally the vehicle was located in Solapurrdquo he addedldquoThe preliminary probe suggests that the accused mantrik and his accomplice reached the houses of the Vanmores probably on June 19 and told them that he Bagwan would perform some rituals to find the hidden treasure They sent the family members to the terrace of their houses then called them down one by one and asked them to consume tea which was laced with some poisonous substancerdquo the official said explaining the sequence of events of June 1920Prima facie Bagwan and Surawase committed the crime by going to the houses of the Vanmore brothers one after the anotherWhen asked about the motive behind the crime the official said that police suspect Bagwan killed the family members as they were demanding their money back from Bagwan after he failed to locate the ldquohidden treasurerdquo for them as promisedAccording to police the Vanmore brothers had given over Rs one crore to Bagwan in the hope that they will find ldquoguptdhanrdquoSangli Superintendent of Police Dikshit Gedam said Bagwan and Surawase are arrested and section 302 punishment for murder of the Indian Penal Code will be invokedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever