Sangli deaths: 13 arrested for allegedly harassing family of nine found dead

A day after nine of a single family were found dead in two separate houses in Mhaisal in Sangli the police have arrested 13 people out 25 who were booked by the Miraj rural police on MondayThe arrested accused will be produced in a court on Tuesday the police said13 people have been arrested so far Superintendent of Police Dikshit Gedam confirmed to middayThe arrested accused have been identified by the police as Nandkumar Pawar 52 Rajendra Bannne 50 Anil Banne 35 Khanderao Shinde 37 Dr Tatyasaheb Chougule 50 Shailesh Dhumal 56 Prakash Pawar 45 Sanjay Bagadi 51 Vijay Sutar 55 Anil Borade 48 Pandurang Ghorpade 56 Shivaji Kore 65 and Rekha Chougule 45According to the police the Sangli police on Monday had booked 25 people in connection with the mass deaths The police have suspected an alleged suicide pact in the matter The bodies were later sent for postmortem to identify the exact cause of deathOn receiving the information on mass deaths on June 20 morning the senior police officials rushed to the spot to investigate the case and learnt that the family of brothers Popat Vanmore 56 Dr Manik Vanmore their mother wives and four children had died on the same dayThe matter came to light after a girl from the village had gone to Vanmores house to check as to why nobody from his family had come to fetch the milk from them and found the bodies Upon learning about the deaths some people decided to inform Popat Vanmore about deaths and found that even Popat Vanmore and his family were no moreInvestigations led the police to two suicide notes which hinted at money lenders pressure on the family an official saidThe police registered an FIR under sections 306 341504 and 34 of the IPC and under relevant sections of the Money Lenders Act after it was found that the family had taken loans from money lenders who had been pressuring them for interests and repay of money an official saidThe primary investigations have revealed that the accused had been pressuring the Vanmores to repay the money and had been allegedly threatening them for the same due to which the family had been reeling in constant fear and mental pressureThe police strongly suspect that the family allegedly consumed poisonous substance to end their lives as there were no external injury marks on their bodies The police is awaiting for post mortam reports to identify exact cause of the deathsReportedly Popat Vanmore was a teacher and Manik Vanmore worked as a veterinary doctorThe police said both the brothersrsquo houses are about 15 km away from each other Six bodies were found in Manik Vanmores house his own his wife mother daughter son and nephew son of Popat Vanmore while Popat Vanmore his wife and daughters bodies were found in the latters residence