Police suspect the man and woman poisoned the children and then committed suicide by hanging. (Representational image)A 25-year-old woman, her two children and a 29-year-old who had gone missing from Shirur taluk of Pune district were found dead at a tourist lodge in Alibag area of Raigad district Tuesday afternoon. Police suspect the man and woman poisoned the children and then committed suicide by hanging.
The deceased have been identified as Kunal Gaikwad (29), Priyanka Ingale (25) and her children Bhakti (5) and Mauli (3).
According to the police, Priyanka and her children went missing from their native place Shirur on May 2. Her husband filed a missing persons case at Shikrapur police station in Pune Rural jurisdiction on the same day. Gaikwad too went missing around the same time, police said, and his wife filed a missing report a few days later.
On Tuesday afternoon, the four were found dead at the tourist lodge where they had come to stay on May 11. “The lodge attendant realised that their bill was pending and there was no movement in the room since morning. The staffers checked from the window and found the man and woman hanging from a rope,” a Raigad district police official said.
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After the police reached the spot, they broke open the door and found the two children dead. “We believe that the man and woman were in a relationship. Primary observation suggests that they killed the children by poisoning them and then hanged themselves,” the official added.
An accidental death report (ADR) has been registered with Raigad district police. The Shikrapur police are assisting the Raigad police to ascertain the sequence of events leading to the deaths.
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