Pune family mass suicides turn out to be murder by relatives; 5 held

Pune: Police have arrested Ashok Kalyan Pawar and four members of his family on the charge of murdering seven members of the family of his cousin Mohan Pawar and making it look like a suicide pact.

“Ashok suspected that his son Dhananjay was killed by Mohan Pawar and, to take the revenge, he hatched a plan along with his family members to kill his cousin and his family members,” superintendent of police Ankit Goyal said on Wednesday.

Police have arrested Ashok Kalyan Pawar, Shankar Kalyan Pawar, Prakash Kalyan Pawar, and Kantabai Sarjerao Jadhav and produced all of them in court.

According to the police, Dhananjay met with an accident a few months ago at Wagholi area in Pune city, according to police, and died while undergoing treatment. Mohan’s son Anil, who had been living in Nighoj for the last few years and worked as a labourer, knew about it but did not inform either his father or Ashok about it. Four days after the accident, Mohan’s son informed his father about it, but the two kept this to themselves.

Ashok, who thought Mohan had a hand in his son’s death, conspired with his family to kill him.

“Holding Mohan and his son responsible for son’s death, Ashok killed them and threw the bodies in the river,” said the police.

Pune police had fished out seven bodies in a span of few days from Bhima river in Daund taluka of Pune district.

Police found a mobile phone near the river and this helped them to carry out the investigations.