Sangli family deaths: Real estate agent who provided poisonous substance to ‘mantrik’ arrested

Pune: A real estate agent has been arrested by the Sangli District Police on Monday from Talegaon Dabhade in Pune in connection with the deaths of the nine members of a family in Mhaisal town under Sangli district of Maharashtra.

The real estate agent identified as Manoj Chandrakant Kshirsargar (48), a resident of Talegaon Dabhade in the Pune district was arrested for allegedly providing a poisonous substance that was used by a ‘mantrik’ and his aide to kill the Sangli family.

Sangli Police had earlier arrested two persons, including Abbas Mohammedali Bagwan (48), the ‘mantrik’ who proclaimed to have supernatural powers, and his aide and driver Dheeraj Suravase (30), both residents of Solapur in connection with the case.

Police officials said that Kshirsagar is a native of Solapur and has known Bagwan for a long time. He moved to Talegaon Dabhade six years ago, as per The Indian Express report.

Inspector Ajay Sindkar of the Sangli Crime Branch, meanwhile, informed that Kshirsagar has been remanded to police custody till July 8 and he is being questioned about the poisonous substance he had provided the other accused.

At around 1 pm on June 20, two brothers, Dr. Manik Vanmore (49), a veterinarian, and Popat Vanmore (52), an arts teacher, their mother, their wives, and four children of the two couples were found dead in their two separate houses located a kilometre apart in Mhaisal Town, reported The Indian Express.

Preliminary investigation by the police pointed to suicide based on the notes found in the two houses. However, during the investigation later it was found that it was a case of murder planned and executed by Bagwan. Police also learned that Bagwan had been promising the Vanmores hidden treasures and had been taking large sums of money from them on the pretext of performing various superstitious rituals, reported The Indian Express.

Police said on the night of June 19, Bagwan came to their house on the pretext of performing some rituals. He then crushed the poisonous pills he had brought with him and added the powder to nine bottles. He then made each of the nine members of the two houses consume the alleged poisonous contents of the bottles.

While the police are still awaiting the chemical analysis report for the confirmation of the alleged poisonous substance, officials investigating the case suspect that the pills may have contained some poisonous substance used by goldsmiths.

Police initially started the investigation based on the two suspected suicide notes, which mentioned that the family members took the extreme step because of heavy debt. Based on the suicide notes, police had initially booked 25 persons, most of them had lent money to the family members and were allegedly pressurising them for repayment. Of the 25 persons, the police have also arrested 19 persons, reported The Indian Express.

Further probe into the case revealed that the deceased Vanmore brothers were in contact with Bagwan, who had allegedly claimed that he would help them unearth the hidden treasures. In the hope of getting the treasures, the two brothers had borrowed large sums of money from people to pay Bagwan on different occasions, over the last couple of years.

According to police, Bagwan had also performed rituals at the Vanmore’s residence multiple times on the pretext of finding hidden treasure.

In the meantime, the people who had given the debts to the Vanmore brothers had started asking for it. The Vanmore brothers had then asked Bagwan to either find the hidden treasure or return the money they had paid him from time to time.

Police investigation further revealed that Bagwan was worried that the Vanmore family would report to the police. So, he and his aide Survase hatched a plan to kill them. Bagwan reportedly hatched the plan about two months back and gathered details of the persons who were pressuring the Vanmore family to pay debts, as per The Indian Express.

The accused then allegedly got the names and other details of these persons written from the Vanmore brothers saying “before Eid” he would keep it before God. Bagwan later took these written notes with him to Solapur and used them as suicide notes after killing the Vanmore family.