Pune family mass suicides turn out to be murder by relatives over old fight

After the police investigation, it was found that seven members of a family who were found dead in a river in Pune were murdered. Earlier it was expected that the family, including three children died because of suicide.

But the police is now saying that they have arrested five people who are the cousins of one of the deceased, Mohan Pawar. Police said that the four brothers and their sister killed the family due to an old family enmity.

The bodies of seven members of a family were found in a river in Maharashtra's Pune, police said on Tuesday (January 24). According to SP Anand Bhate, the dead bodies were found in the Bhima river in Pune's Daund. The deceased included a couple in their 40s, their daughter and son-in-law, and three grandchildren.

Police statement: Pune district's SP Ankit Kumar Goyal said that Ashok Kanyan Pawar, Shyam Kalyan Pawar, Shankar Kalyan Pawar, Prakash Kalyan Pawar and their sister Kanta Bai Jadhav have been arrested for the crime.

• The Pawar family is originally from Beed and Usmanabad, and were living in Ahmednangar's Parner taluka. On January 17, the entire family disappeared, and between January 18-22 their bodies were found floating in the river in Pune.

The investigation: The police formed five teams to investigate the case and they were sent to different regions in the state. The cops found some clues which led them to the arrest of five members of the Pawar family.

What led to the murder: Police said that the accused's son and Mohan Pawar's son were involved in an accident near Pune sometimes back. In the accident, the accused's son had died and he held the entire family of Mohan Pawar responsible for it.

• The cops said that this was a well-planned and cold-blooded crime and the motive was to finish the entire family.

When the incident came to light: Four bodies were found between January 18 and January 22 while three bodies were found on Tuesday near Pargon bridge on the Bheema river on the outskirts of Yavat village in Daund tehsil, around 45 km away from Pune city.

• The deceased are identified as Mohan Pawar (45), his wife Sangita Mohan (40), their daughter, Rani Fulware (24), son-in-law Shyam Fulware (28), and their three children aged between three and seven years. The bodies were found 200 to 300 metres away from each other in the Bheema river bed.

Burari angle in the beginning: In the starting, the death of seven members of the family pointed towards a suicide pact, and police had also not ruled it out. So, many thought this is like the Burari case. Burari deaths were a ritual mass suicide of eleven members of a family from Burari, Delhi, in 2018. Eleven people were found hanged, while the oldest family member, the grandmother, was strangled.