Ulhasnagar triple murder case: Thane Police suspect insider involvement, probe robbery angle too

The deceased, Shankar Bhandari (60), his wife Fusabai (50), and son Sunny (22), had been living here for over a decade.

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Shankar Bhandari was a farmer. He had a milk farm and ten buffaloes with which he supported his family. When a villager came to milk one of the cows around 4 am on Thursday, he found the couple lying in a pool of blood outside their house, where they had been sleeping on cots. He then went inside and saw Sunny’s body in the bedroom.

DCP (Zone 4) Sunil Bharadwaj said, “We are also probing whether robbery was the motive behind the murder,” the officer said.

However, a senior crime branch officer said given the fact that the axes belonged to the family, they were suspecting insider involvement in the case. “Robbers would have been armed and they normally threaten people. Here it appears that the plan was to kill,” the officer said.

The police have approached the gram panchayat to check the couple’s land and property records to see who stood to gain from the murders.

The police has so far recorded the statements of Anil, Shankar Bhandari’s son who was staying with them but was away on Wednesday night. He has reportedly told the police that he and his wife had gone to his in-laws’ place, some distance away from their residence, and decided to stay the night as it started raining heavily.

The police have also recorded the statements of Bhandari’s two other sons who had been staying separately after getting married. “So far, their statements have not been of much help,” said an officer.