Five members of a family poisoned to death in Maharashtra; two held

Mumbai: Five members of a family were poisoned to death in little over a fortnight's time because of a dispute vis-a-vis ancestral property in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.

Police managed to crack the case on Wednesday with the arrest of two women of the family who were involved in the crime. 

The deceased were identified as Shankar Kumbhare and his wife Vijaya Kumbhare, their son Roshan Kumbhare and their two daughters Komal Dahagaokar and Ananda alias Varsha Urade.

The two arrested accused were identified as Sanghamitra Kumbhare and Rosa Ramteke.

While Sanghamitra is Shankar Kumbhare’s daughter-in-law, Rosa is the wife of his brother-in-law.

The incident was reported from the Mahagao village in Aheri tehsil of Gadchiroli district of Vidarbha region. 

On September 20, Shankar and his wife Vijaya were taken ill and were admitted to a hospital at Aheri, then to neighbouring Chandrapur district from where they were taken to another hospital in Nagpur.  However, Shankar passed away on September 26, followed by his wife Vijaya on September 27. 

Soon, Komal and Roshan, who were residing in Gadaheri and Varsha Urade, who was living nearby, were hospitalised at different medical facilities. Komal passed away on October 8,  Varsha on October 14 and Roshan on October 15. 

The series of deaths came as a shocker in the Gadchiroli district. 

Shankar's eldest son, Sagar Kumbhare, who was working in Delhi, rushed to Chandrapur as soon as he learned that his parents were hospitalised.

However, upon returning to Delhi after their last rites, his own health suddenly deteriorated, leading to his admission to a hospital in Delhi for treatment. Similarly, the car driver of the family, Rakesh Madavi, who had shifted Shankar and Vijaya to Chandrapur for treatment, also got admitted to a private hospital as his condition worsened. Another relative who accompanied the family to Chandrapur and Nagpur required hospitalisation. However, all of them are stable now. 

Looking at the seriousness of the incident, Gadchiroli’s Superintendent of Police Neelotpal himself supervised the investigations.

"Four different investigation teams were formed to conduct inquiries in various districts of Maharashtra and Telangana,” the Gadchiroli police said.

Initial investigations raised suspicion on Sanghamitra and Rosa who were closely monitored, and were picked up by police on Wednesday. 

“During the investigations, it was discovered that Sanghamitra had married Roshan against her parent’s wishes, which led to her father’s death by suicide. Furthermore, her husband Roshan and her in-laws frequently subjected her to taunts. Rosa, on the other hand, poisoned the entire Kumbhare family and their relatives due to disagreements over sharing the ancestral property. According to their plan, Rosa travelled to Telangana and obtained poison, which they then mixed with the food and drink of the deceased and sick individuals whenever the opportunity arose,” police said.