Neral triple murder: Cops solve case in a day, say property dispute was motive

Navi Mumbai: Neral resident Hanumant Patil was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly murdering his elder brother, his brother’s wife who was seven months pregnant and their nine-year-old son. The trio were murdered over a dispute regarding division of their family property and the accused’s failure to secure an independent ration card, said police.
“The case was solved within 24 hours of finding the bodies. The accused was questioned multiple times and each time the story changed. Continuous grilling led to the accused confessing to the crime,” said Somnath Gharge, superintendent of police, Raigad.
The bodies of Madan Patil, his wife Madhuri and their son were found floating in a lake in Chikanpada village in Neral, where the family resided, on September 8. Deep injury marks were noticed on all three bodies after they were retrieved from the lake, indicating they had been assaulted with a heavy object. The police subsequently lodged a case under sections 103 (1) (murder) and 238 (disappearance of evidence) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita based on complaint by Yashwant Vehale, the brother of the deceased woman.
Preliminary investigation by the Raigad crime branch revealed Madan Patil’s younger brother Hanumant Patil as the prime suspect. Both the brothers lived together in the same house till a dispute over division of the property led to them build a partition wall and live separately.
“Hanumant Patil was sure of being denied his rightful share in the family property. He was also upset over his inability to secure an independent ration card, using which he could buy foodgrains at subsidised rates,” said the investigating officer in the case. The accused had tried to kill his elder brother’s family earlier too, and the latter had complained about it to the police, though no first information report was registered based on the complaint, the officer added.
“On September 7, the first day of the Ganpati festival, Hanumant, his wife and children went to relative’s house in a nearby village. Late at night, Hanumant slipped out from the house and travelled back to his village. He then sneaked into his elder brother’s house and killed him, his pregnant wife and their son, who were all sleeping, using an axe,” said the investigating officer.
The accused had draped himself in a shawl to ensure his clothes did not bear bloodstains, the officer added. After confirming that all three were dead, he threw the bodies and the shawl into the lake and returned to the relative’s house to participate in the festivities.
“The crime would have gone undetected had it not been for the CCTV cameras that captured the movements of the accused,” said the police officer.