4 real estate agents found murdered in Panvel farmhouse

The four were at the farmhouse reportedly to discuss a real estate deal and were carrying a large

Three real estate agents were found shot and a fouth killed with a hard object at a farmhouse 20 km from Panvel on Wednesday morning. New Panvel Police suspect Ramdas Patil (53) Balaram Topale (42), Nitin Joshi (40) and Preetam Gharat (25) met for a business transaction and might have been carrying a large sum.

The farmhouse belongs to Datta Patil, activist and vice-president of local Agriculture Produce and Market Committee, who is an uncle of Ramdas.

Officers probing the case said his son asked Patil at 10.30 am on Wednesday for keys to the farmhouse in Chincholi to perform a Diwali puja.

Patil told him nephew Ramdas took the keys on Sunday saying he had a meeting with friends regarding a real estate deal. Ramdas said a hotel room would not be safe as they were carrying a large sum, police claimed.

Patil told cops a watchman at the farmhouse informed him that Ramdas and three friends arrived in a Toyota Innova. They gave Rs 500 to the watchman and told him to go on leave for four days.

Watchman Alarku Durge, who has been working for Patil for a year, said, "I did as was told. However, boss asked me on Wednesday to check the farmhouse and take keys from Ramdas. I went there and to my horror, I found four bodies in a pool of blood with shattered liquor bottles."

While Topale was found dead inside the bungalow with a bullet wound in his temple, Ramdas was found a few feet away with a wound made by a hard object. Gharat was found near the bungalow, while Joshi's body was in the fields metres away from the farmhouse.

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