NAGPUR, July 28: When top policemen of the State were busy in the city assessing the law and order situation of the State, four members of a family were found murdered at Chitnavis Layout, Byramji Town locality in north Nagpur on Saturday afternoon.

Police officials feel that the murders had been committed by dacoits as all valuables were found missing from the house.

The news came as a rude shock to police officials who were busy attending to Chief Minister Manohar Joshi. Somehow, police officials kept the matter a secret till Joshi flew to Aurangabad.

The victims, Akhtarbhai alias Shabbir Hinganghatwale (27), his father Asgarbhai Hinganghatwale (65), mother Bilkis (60) and aunt Khudeja (70) ran a hardware shop at Resham Oli in Itwari named Burhani Traders.

Akhtar and Asgar were found murdered in their respective bedrooms situated on the first floor of the newly constructed two-storey house, while Bilkis and Khudeja's bodies were found on the ground floor bedroom. Tasneem (25), Akhtar's wife, escaped the tragedy as she is staying with her parents at Rajnandgaon and is reportedly pregnant.

The murder came to light when a carpenter named Ajabrao, who was employed to furnish the newly constructed house, found the residence locked for two consecutive days. On Saturday morning, on getting a stench from the house, he peeped into the first floor bedroom of the house, to find Asgarbhai's body on the floor.

Later the police found all cupboards on the ground and first floor ransacked and all valuables removed. The bodies bore injuries on skulls, reportedly inflicted by two wooden stumps, which the police later recovered from the balcony of the house.

The Maruti car belonging to the family was also missing. Police officials believe that the dacoits escaped in the Maruti car. According to the preliminary estimates made by police and relatives of the deceased, cash, gold jewellery and silver utensils worth over Rs 1.5 lakh had been stolen. The Bohra community, to which the family belonged, kept its shops and establishments closed in protest against the incident and have demanded immediate arrest of the culprits.

The murders were similar to previous dacoity and murder cases of SCZCC assistant director, Kundalik Deshmukh at Giripeth and that of Shashikala Zadkar at Daga Layout. The wooden stumps found at the house were similar to those found at Zadkar residence.

The Hinganghatwale family had little contact with neighbourers, hence the murders went unnoticed for two days.

The theft of the car and the modus operandi points out that an inter-state gang may be involved.

Ali Hussain reached Sadar police station at 11.15 am, when the Chief Minister was in the city. Still, the matter was kept secret and it was by 1.30 pm that CP went to the spot. The newspapers were made known only after 3 pm, when the bodies had been sent for post mortem. Robbers attempted to loot Lokmat scribe Rahul Avasare at Chaoni square, when he was on way to reach the murder spot. The robbers were later arrested by police.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.