Police crack mystery behind 9 deaths in Maharashtra's Sangli; two held for murders

Sangli (Maharashtra): The mystery behind the sensational mass suicide incident in Maharashtra has come to an end after three months. Two brothers from Sangli committed suicide, along with their family members, in June.

A total of nine died in that incident. The villagers and the police assumed that they committed suicide because they could not pay off the debts of lakhs to the people of the village. However, after a three-month investigation, the police concluded that they were not mass suicides, but mass murders. Police revealed that two tantriks killed them.

Two brothers Yallappa Vanmore (52) and Manik Vanmore (49) committed suicide on June 20, along with their family members. This incident created a sensation at that time. The police came to the preliminary conclusion that all of them committed suicide after consuming poison.

At that time it was assumed that the Vanmore brothers committed suicide in their house, along with their family members, because they could not pay off their debts to the villagers. Cases have also been registered against 25 people for giving them loans, forcing them to repay and inciting them to commit suicide. But as the investigation progressed, the truth came out.

According to the police, Abbas Bhagwan of Sholapur and his disciple Dheeraj Chandrakant cheated the Vanmore brothers in the name of performing puja for hidden treasure. They believed that if they perform puja, the treasure in the house can be retrieved.

The duo took Rs.5 lakhs from them. On the night of June 19, both of them performed puja at the the Vanmore family home. After that, they asked everyone to go out and then asked one by one to come inside.

Each person, who entered was given poison in the name of prasadam. After killing everyone, they took the money and ran away. Police nabbed the accused after examining the CCTV footage. Both of them were arrested and remanded.