He went looking for them at their Palghar home in Maharashtra after they stopped picking up his daily calls; the police suspect murder
The bodies of Mukund Rathod, his wife Kanchan and daughter Sangita were found in the village home by son Pankaj. Pics/Hanif Patel
Maggot-infested bodies of an elderly couple and their specially abled daughter were found in their village home in Wada taluka, Palghar district on Saturday. All the three bodies were fully decomposed, and bore injury marks on their head and chest, said Palghar police.
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The horrific scene was discovered by the deceased senior citizens’ son, Pankaj Rathod, a resident of Vasai. The couple’s other son lives in Rajkot, Gujarat. Pankaj had gone to the house in Neharoli village to investigate why his parents had stopped picking up his calls a fortnight ago. “Pankaj said he last spoke to his father on August 17. Since then his calls had not able to get through to them,” said a police officer privy to the investigation.
He arrived on Saturday to find an eerie silence and the door padlocked from outside, said the officer. After searching for his parents in the village, Pankaj decided to break open the door. He was shocked to see his 72-year-old father Mukund Rathod’s lifeless body on the floor, crawling with maggots. There was no sight or sound of his mother Kanchan, 70, and sister Sangita, 52. Panic-stricken, Pankaj went back out to search for them in the neighbourhood, and local residents gathered to help too, said an eyewitness.
It was only when Pankaj returned to the house and went up to the first floor that he caught whiff of a foul smell. He followed the stench to a trunk. “On opening it, he found the maggot-infested bodies of his mother and sister. The trunk was seething with maggots, with bugs dropping to the floor,” said an officer.
The triple murder rocked the sleepy Palghar village. A forensic team was called in to collect all the vital pieces of evidence. “All three bodies bore injury marks in their head, but the post-mortem report from JJ Hospital is awaited for details. Preliminary investigation reveals that it’s a murder case. It is believed that these three bodies had been decomposing for more than 15 days,” Superintendent of Palghar Police Balasaheb Patil told mid-day.
Senior PI of Wada police Dattatreya Kindre said, “We have registered an FIR under sections 103 (1) (murder) and 238 (destruction of evidence) of the BNS.” Palghar police have formed various teams to solve the murder mystery. Meanwhile, the Local Crime Branch is conducting a parallel investigation in the sensitive case.
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