Man arrested for family's murder

Panvel police have arrested Shivram Bhopi (40) charging him with the murder of his father Janu Bhopi (72), his step-mother Sangeeta (48) and his step-brother Pravin (5). The trio were found dead in Harigram village of Panvel on November 7. 
 
Said Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Vijay Surya, "We suspected property dispute as the cause of the murder and hence questioned a number of persons in the family. We had spoken to Shivram as well. He had named his uncles as the probable killers. Following our investigations, however, we zeroed in on Shivram and arrested him on Saturday." 

Police say they learnt during the course of their investigation that the father and son duo had quarrelled several times over property matters. Said ACP Surya, "Shivram had also opposed his father's second marriage for the same issue. Later when his step-mother had conceived he had warned that she shouldn't give birth to a son." 

Shivram has been remanded to police custody till December 3 and police say they hope to get more details from him about the murder. 

As reported earlier in the Hindustan Times, Panvel police had found the dead bodies of Janu, Sangeeta and Pravin, all of whom were strangulated to death at their house in Harigram village of Panvel. The bodies were found after Sangeeta's brother Madhukar Barshi, a resident of Humgaon in Karjat received an anonymous call informing him that his sister and niece were lying dead in their house. 

On receiving the complaint from Barshi, the police had gone over to the farmhouse of the Bhopis, which is situated in a remote area of Humgaon. Inside the house, they found Sangeeta and her son Pravin lying dead on the floor. A nylon rope was found near the deceased. Janu's body was later found in the nearby field.

Email: htmetro@hindustantimes.com