9 members of family found dead in Maharashtra village, police suspect suicide pact; debt angle emerges

Nine members of a family of two brothers were found dead in Maharashtra's Sangli district on Monday, police said and maintained they suspect it to be a case of suicide pact, while preliminary probe suggests the duo had heavily borrowed money from various people.

The bodies were found in two different houses of the brothers, located 1.5km apart, in Mhaisal village in the western Maharashtra district, over 350km from the state capital Mumbai.

The police said the deceased included two brothers - Popat Vanmore (56), Dr Manik Vanmore - their mother, wives and four children and it is suspected they might have some consumed poisonous substances to end their lives.

While Popat Vanmore was a teacher, Manik Vanmore worked as a veterinary doctor, they said.

"Prima facie, it looks that the family members of the two brothers have ended their lives. As per information received so far, both the brothers had borrowed money from various people. We are trying to establish the sequence of events as both the spots (houses where bodies were found) are 1.5km away from each other," said Manojkumar Lohiya, Inspector General (Kolhapur range).

He said six bodies were found in Manik Vanmore's house - his own, those of 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 residence.

Lohiya said the police found suicide notes from both the locations and they are analysing them.

"The content in the notes suggests they had a lot of borrowing. However, we are probing the case from all angles," said the officer.

The deceased daughter of Popat Vanmore used to work in a bank, he said.

Asked how the incident came to light, the IPS officer said a girl from the village had gone to Manik Vanmore's house to find out why nobody had come to fetch milk from them as was the daily routine and found the bodies.

"When some people went to the house of Popat Vanmore to inform him about what they saw in his brother's home, they found dead bodies there too," Lohiya said.

He said as per primary information, a poisonous substance was consumed by the family members, but only a detailed investigation and postmortem report will throw light on the exact cause of the death.

"Though it looks like a suicide pact, we are investigating the case from all angles as it is a serious incident," the senior police officer said. 

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