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,...
A man set himself afire along with wife and son in a moving car on Tuesday afternoon, reportedly due to financial crisis. While the man was charred to death, his wife and son sustained serious burns in the familicide pact. The incident took place near Khapri Punarvasan area under jurisdiction of Beltarodi police station area, said the officials who attended the spot.
The deceased was identified as Ramraj Gopalkrishna Bhat (58), a resident of Jaitala. His wife Sangita (55) and son Nandan (30) have sustained around 50 per cent burn injuries. Ramraj was owner of a factory in the MIDC Hingna area and Nandan was an engineering graduate, according to police.
A police official said, it seems to well-planned murder-cum-suicide case. Ramraj was under sever financial stress while Nandan too was unemployed. The worrisome financial situation led to regular arguments between the father and the son and the tension finally seems to have driven Ramraj to the ghastly idea, he said.
Ramraj hatched the conspiracy and kept a suicide note in the almirah at his house. He also wrote an instruction about the location of suicide note in his purse that was wrapped in a polythene, an official further said.
On the pretext of going for lunch at Hotel Le Meridien, Ramraj asked Sangita and Nandan to accompany him in a Maruti 800 car. A petrol bottle and a poison bottle were kept by Ramraj near the driver seat. The three started for the Hotel at around 11.30 am from their Jaitala home. After crossing Chinchbhavan, Ramraj took a turn on the cement road of Khapri Punarvasan localities and to avoid any suspicion he complained of acidity. He consumed the poison and gave the bottle to son and wife asking them to consume the same stating it is antacid medicine. Nandan suspected something foul while Sangita consumed the poison without suspecting the intention of her husband, the primary investigation revealed.
Suspecting the plan was not going as he wished, Ramraj opened another bottle and poured petrol on himself and sprikled some on Sangita and Nandan. Before they could understand the motive, the man set himself and the two alight, said police, on the basis of statements given by the son and the mother. The three caught fire and started battling for life even as mother-son duo opened the doors and somehow managed to douse the flames, police said.
A large number of passers-by gathered at the spot and they rushed Sangita and Nandan to the hospital. Ramraj however was charred to death as he remained seated inside the car. DCP Zone IV Nurool Hasan, Sr PI Beltarodi Chandrakant Yadav and others rushed to the spot. Two fire tenders were called to douse the flames.
Before committing the familicide, Ramraj threw his purse outside the car that was found by the police. A copy of suicide note was also recovered from the almirah of Bhat’s house, police said and added that the suicide note was written in English in which Ramraj stated that "he was committing the suicide due to financial crisis." A forensic team was also summoned by the police for the probe.
A case is registered by Beltarodi police. Further investigation is on.
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