Thane (Maharashtra): A week after the sensational massacre of 14 family members and subsequent suicide by killer Hasnain Warekar, the police on Saturday came up with multiple motives behind the macabre killings, including a huge debt, sexual abuse of a sibling and his own psychological distress.
Joint Police Commissioner Ashutosh Dumbare said the statements by the sole survivor, Hasnain’s younger sister Sabia Bharmal, revealed a huge financial debt of Rs.6.70 million and sexual abuse of a mentally-challenged sister.
Police also recovered certain medicines the killer used to consume for psychological treatment and they are now ascertaining details of the doctor who may have advised him the medication and the pharmacy from where he procured them, he added.
On Saturday (February 27), Warekar had invited his family members, including his parents, sisters, their children, his wife and his own two daughters, for a party to celebrate his elder daughter’s sixth birthday.
Later that night, after the feast he served them a soft drink (faluda) spiked with sedatives and around 3.00 a.m. on Sunday (February 28), Warekar slashed their throats with a large knife, used to sacrifice big and small animals during Bakri Eid.
The daybreak on Sunday left people shocked as 15 bodies, including Warekar’s own, were found in a pool of blood inside the bungalow, unnerving the quiet Kasarvadavali area of the city adjacent to Mumbai.
A few hours earlier, survivor Sabia, who did not eat much but took a little of the soft drink and slept, suddenly woke up to see the gory killings and witnessed her brother killing their mother who was begging for mercy.
Sabia managed to lock herself in one of the bedrooms and screamed for help from the neighbours even as Warekar hanged himself in the living room.
She has told the investigators that Warekar had availed huge loans from their parents Anwar and Asgari (both killed), an aunt and their grand father, totally amounting to Rs.6.70 million.
On February 4, one of the victims, a mentally-challenged sister took Sabia into confidence and revealed how Warekar (the killer brother) was sexually abusing her, indulged in unnatural sex with her and threatened her not to inform other family members.
Sabia, in turn, confided in her mother Asgari a couple of days later at a family gathering when Warekar reportedly overheard them discussing the issue and even other family members learnt of his deranged sexual behaviour with the sibling, enraging him.
Though he maintained his outward cool, he was seething with rage inside and his behaviour appeared to change, and he could have planned out the brutal killing, now ranked the worst-ever family homicide in the country.
“We will verify all the details, although all the family members are now dead. We shall speak with other relatives and acquaintances,” Dumbare said.
Police have also learnt that he had rented a room in Majiwada locality of Thane, close to his home in Kasarvadavli, and had lost the loaned money in the stock markets.
Warekar’s victims included: Anwar Warekar (father, 65), Asgari (mother, 56), Jabin (wife, 28), Mubatshira, 6, and Umera, three-month old, (daughters), Shabina Shaukat Khan, 35, Maria Irfan Fakki, 28, unmarried Batul, 30, (sisters), Anas Shaukat Khan, 12, Sadiya Shaukat Khan, 16, and Arsiya Bharmal, five-month old, (nieces), Alihasan Shaukat Khan, 5, Umer Irfan Fakki, 7, and Yusuf Irfan Khan (nephews).
Warekar’s sister Sabia Bharmal, 22, was the lone survivor.
–IANS