Suspects held

Three suspects belonging to the Phase Pardhi nomadic tribe were nabbed by the police in connection with the triple murder of Dolly, Rusi and Roshan Avari at their Hughes Road flat in December 2000, notes a report in The Indian Express’ Mumbai Newsline of January 15, 2003. Initially undecided on whether property dispute or robbery was the motive behind the murders, the investigators spent "almost six months before they stumbled on their first clue,” reported the newspaper. Missing jewelry and cash from the flat led the investigators to conclude that robbery was the motive behind the murders of the two septuagenarians and one nonagenarian each of whom had been struck on the head with an iron rod (see "More murders,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, March 2001).

"The investigating team spent a few hundred hours tracking the group outside the city,” deputy commissioner of police (crime) Pradip Sawant was quoted in the Mumbai Newsline. Making one police constable pose as a Pardhi while the other members of the squad tracked the group which had slipped out of the city, the police narrowed in on the suspects Rangi Pawar (32), Bhima Kale (21) and Sukhdeo Kale (23).

"I’ve been praying for the culprits to be caught. All we hope now is that they’ve got the right people,” one of the Avari neighbors was quoted in the Mumbai Newsline.