ZP school principal kills wife & 2 sons, then ends life in Solapur; Rs 1.8 crore stock market loss mentioned in note found by police

Kolhapur: A zilla parishad school principal allegedly killed his wife and two young sons by lacing their ice cream with poison before ending his life by hanging at their native home in Solapur district late on Thursday night.

Based on a note recovered from the scene, the police suspect that massive financial losses — amounting to nearly Rs 1.8 crore — in the stock market led the man to take the extreme step.The deceased have been identified as Yogesh Patil, a 41-year-old principal posted at Chaugaon Budruk in Nandurbar district, his wife, Madhuri (37), and their sons Atharva (11), and Shivansh (9). The incident occurred at their home village, Hattij, in Barshi taluka of Solapur.

A case has been registered at the Vairag police station.The police said Patil had reportedly incurred losses in stock investments over the past few months. A 22-page handwritten note recovered from the house does not blame anyone, but details his distress.Inspector Kundan Gawade, of the Vairag police station, said the note pointed to financial collapse as the trigger. “According to the 22-page letter written by Yogesh Patil, he committed suicide along with his wife and two children after he could not bear the financial loss of crores of rupees invested in the stock market.

He has not blamed anyone in this note. We are in the process of registering a murder case against Yogesh Patil for killing his wife and two children,” he said.The incident came to light on Friday morning when a milkman’s repeated knocks went unanswered. Villagers then forced open the door to find Patil hanging from a ceiling fan, while his wife and children lay lifeless nearby. The police believe the woman and the children were given poisoned ice cream before the suicide.

Following postmortem and panchanama, the four were cremated together on Friday evening.Preliminary inquiries revealed that Patil had been investing not just his salary but also money borrowed from relatives, promising high returns. “People should be wary of online games and predatory companies that lure them with huge amounts of money in the share market,” Gawade added, highlighting the growing risk of unchecked speculative investments.Patil had returned to Hattij with his family for a holiday from Nandurbar, where he was serving as a school principal. The police are continuing to probe the case.