Maharashtra: Nine members of family dead in Sangli; Police book 25 people, suspects money lending behind deaths

Locals gather outside the house after nine members of a family allegedly committed suicide, at Mhaishal village, in Sangli. Pic/PTI

The Sangli police on Monday booked 25 people from the district in connection with the mass death of nine members of a single-family. The police have suspected an alleged 'suicide pact' in the matter. The bodies were found in two different houses in Sangli, a western Maharashtra district located over 350km from Mumbai.

Speaking to mid-day.com, Superintendent of Police, Dikshit Gedam said, "A case under section 306 (abetment to suicide) of IPC was registered against 25 people in the matter. The case is further being investigated."

The police said, following the recovery of the bodies from a house in Mhaisal in Sangli, a search operation led to a recovery of a suicide note by the police. The bodies have been sent for post-mortem to identify the exact cause of death of the deceased.

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"We are trying to identify further if it was a case of a suicide pact by the family. Prima facia it looks like a case of the family being in debt and money lenders pressuring the family, hence we have registered an FIR against the money lenders and are enquiring the matter further," said the official.

Soon after the information of the mass deaths of a single-family was received, the senior police officials rushed to the spot to investigate the case further and learnt that the family of two brothers - Popat Vanmore (56), Dr Manik Vanmore - their mother, wives and four children had died on the same day.

Reportedly, Popat Vanmore was a teacher and Manik Vanmore worked as a veterinary doctor.

The police said that they were now trying to establish the sequence of events as both the brothers' houses are about 1.5km away from each other. Six bodies were found in Manik Vanmore's house - his own, his wife, mother, daughter, son and nephew (son of Popat Vanmore), while Popat Vanmore, his wife and daughter's bodies were found in the latter's house.

The matter came to light after a girl from the village had gone to Manik Vanmore's house to check as to why nobody from his family had come to fetch the milk from them and found the bodies. Upon learning about the deaths some people decided to inform Popat Vanmore about deaths and found that even Popat Vanmore and his family were no more, an official said.