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A Village Burnt Overnight: Tears, Loss and Survival in Dhamangaon Blaze

  Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...

Familicides on rise : 21 lives lost in two years in city


Familicides cases in which husband or wife murders their partner and children was the rare phenomenon in Nagpur city. Sadly, such cases are on rise in the past two years as a whopping 21 persons of four families have lost their lives.

Medico woman kills hubby and children

The first such incident reported in recent years was on August 19, 2020. Dr Shushma Rane had killed her husband Dhiraj (42), a professor at an engineering college, and their children aged 11 and five at their home in Om Nagar in Koradi area. The bodies of the three were found in the bedroom while Sushma was found hanging from a ceiling fan.

Man murders five including children

Second such sensational incident reported after almost a year on June 21, 2021 when a 50-year-old man killed his wife, daughter, son, mother-in-law and sister-in-law before dying by suicide. The incident was happened in Pachpaoli area of the Tehsil police station. Alok Maturkar had killed his 30-year-old sister-in-law Amisha, mother-in-law Lakshmibai, wife Vijaya (40), son Sahil (9) and daughter Pari (14).

Agrawal family murder-cum-suicide case

A 40-year-old man had killed his wife and two minor children by stabbing them and then committed suicide at his rented house in Jaripatka on January 18 this year. The man, identified by the police as Madan Agrawal, and his wife Kiran (33) were staying in the house in the Jaripatka area with their 10-year-old son and daughter aged five.

Man kills wife and daughter

Within two months, one more such case reported in MIDC area on March 12 in which a man killed his wife and 13-year-old daughter before committing suicide in Rajiv Nagar area of MIDC police station. Vilas Gavte (50) had allegedly slit the throat of his daughter Amruta and wife Ranjana (45) before hanging himself from a tree outside his house.


In all these four cases, one thing was common -- the perpetrator committed suicide after committing the murders. The police have got some conclusions in the cases on the basis of statements of relatives and mobile phone data. Every case is unique and has a different story and reasons. But some reasons are common in some cases. In three cases - Rane family, Agrawal family and Maturkar family -- the perpetrator had not shared his family disputes with anyone.
Barring Rane family case, the accused had killed their family members by slitting their throats with a sharp-weapon when they were sleeping. In the Rane family case, the accused woman had administered anesthesia to his husband and children.
The police investigation revealed that an extra-marital affair was the reason in the first two cases while financial debt was the reason in the third one. In the four cases, the cops are suspecting short tempered behavior as the reason behind gruesome murders.

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