Man sets brother's house on fire, kills four members of family

Upset over the division of ancestral land, a man allegedly set his younger brother's house on fire, killing four members of the family including his mother in Solapur district of Maharashtra.

The ghastly incident, in which the accused himself too suffered injuries, took place at Khandvi in Barshi tehsil late last night, police said.

The accused was identified as Ramchandra Devkate (30).

He and his younger brother Rahul (27) had a dispute over the family's land, and the accused was upset over the way it had been divided, police said.

As their mother Kasturabai (60) lived with Rahul, Ramchandra thought that her share of the land too would go to his brother, and allegedly decided to kill off the entire family, police said.

Late last night he allegedly splashed kerosene on his brother's house and torched it.

Kasturabai, Rahul, his wife Sushma (24) and their son Aryan (3) were sleeping inside.

Rahul, with his body on fire, rushed out of the house and hugged Ramchandra, police said. As a result the accused too suffered serious burn injuries.

All of them were rushed to a hospital in Osmanabad, where Kasturabai, Rahul, Sushma and Aryan died during treatment. Ramchandra was being treated in the ICU.

A case of murder has been registered at Barshi police station and further probe is on.