Nine members of a family of two brothers who were initially reported to have died in a "mass suicide" were actually murdered by two men, including a 'Tantric' (occultist), who had promised to find them a hidden treasure, police said.
The two brothers – Popat Vanmore, a teacher, and Manik Vanmore, a veterinarian – and seven of their other family members were found dead at two separate homes of the siblings, located approximately a mile apart in the Mhaisal village of Sangli district, in the Indian state of Maharashtra on Monday, June 20,
The deceased include their 74-year-old mother, wives, and four children.
Suicide notes recovered from the homes indicated that the family had serious financial problems and had hefty debts to repay.
Police have arrested the occultist, 48-year-old Abbas Mohammad Ali Bagwan a resident of Sarvadenagar, Solapur and his driver, 39-year-old Dheeraj Chandrakant Suravshe, a resident of Vasant Vihar Dhyaneshwari Plot.
"We have arrested two persons. They are not relatives. We are checking their background. They used to visit the family to guide them relating to hidden treasure. On June 19, they visited the family members. They administered poison through food or liquid substance," Dikshitkumar Gedam, District Superintendent of Police, told Times of India.
He said the accused will be charged with section 302 (Punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
"He (Tantric) took large amounts of money from them and we suspect that this is why they were borrowing so heavily," Inspector General of Police (Kolhapur Range) Manoj Kumar Lohiya told PTI.
A neighbor of the family had said the brothers "often used to brag that they would be receiving hefty money from a company located abroad. It is heard that the two brothers often used to say that they would receive ₹ 3,000 crore."
The police had registered a case against 25 people from whom the family had borrowed money. As many as 19 people have already been arrested and are under police custody.
But the investigation took a turn when police learned that the brothers had purchased 20 coconuts from a retailer the day before they died. This indicated the possibility of an occult practice.
"Our suspicions were first raised when we read the note. Usually, a suicide note starts off by mentioning the problems victims are facing. It then goes on to name the people responsible and ends with the reasons why the extreme step was taken. In this case, the note began by listing out the names of the lenders and ended with the description of harassment. Nowhere was the death by suicide actually mentioned in the entire note," Lohiya said.
A further investigation revealed that the brothers had borrowed Rs 1 crore ( US $126541) to pay to the accused ‘Tantric’ who would find the hidden treasure for them.
As no treasure was found, the brothers grew suspicious and began demanding the ‘Tantric’ to return the money and told him about the harassment they were facing from the money lenders.
They also threatened to approach the police if the ‘Tantric’ did not pay back.
The ‘Tantric’, however, convinced the brothers that a final ritual will solve all their problems.
The ‘Tantric’ told the brothers to write down the names of the lenders, who were harassing them, on a sheet of paper. This same sheet of paper was later found at the homes and initially mistaken for a suicide note, police said.
The poison was reportedly mixed in the ‘Prasad’ (a devotional offering made to a god, typically consisting of food) that was distributed among the family members during the ritual.
"The accused will be produced in court on Tuesday. Meanwhile, as soon as the murder angle started becoming clear, we produced the earlier arrested accused in court on Monday and asked that they be sent to judicial custody. Further course of action regarding them will be taken once the inquiry against Bagwan and Survase is complete," Lohiya said.
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