Thread by @dhavalkulkarni

A Doctor can be the greatest criminal of the world. He has the knowledge & the nerve-Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's line was personified by a 40-year old Doctor from #Pune who committed a sensational murder in the 1950s. Thread
#crime #truecrime #Maharashtra #Mumbai

At around 5.30 a.m. on 13th November 1956, Anant Chintamun Lagu, a Pune-based doctor, came to the GT Hospital in Mumbai with a 45-yr-old widow, who was unconscious. Lagu said she had fallen unconscious during an overnight train journey from Pune to Mumbai.

Lagu said he was travelling in same compartment as the woman. He told the doctors that he did not know the woman, but had gathered during the journey that her name was Indumati Panse. Lagu provided his address in Pune to the hospital.

The lady died during treatment at around 11.30 a.m. She had no money or ornaments, and the doctors felt she was a destitute. They sent a telegram to Lagu asking him to make arrangements for her body.

Two days later, Lagu replied saying that the woman's brother Govind Vaman Deshpande lived in Calcutta and would claim the body. But no one came forth to claim the body. It was subsequently over to the Grant Medical College for use of students for anatomical study & dissection.

But, a clerk in the medical college noticed some suspicious marks on the neck. An autopsy of the body was done, seven days after death but this did not reveal anything usual and the body was cremated.

Meanwhile, in Pune, relatives of a wealthy widow named Laxmibai Karve were anxious as she was missing for days.

Soon, they received a letter, purportedly written by her, stating that she had left on a pilgrimage during which she had met and married a person named Joshi at Rathodi in Rajasthan. She advised them to communicate with her through the newspaper ‘Sakal.’

They also received more letters from Laxmibai saying that that she had no intention of returning to Pune. These letters asked her relatives to not trace her whereabouts.

Her rooms were initially locked, but soon the doors were found open and the moveable property was found to have been removed. Through these mysterious letters Laxmibai said she had herself removed these articles secretly and that none was to be blamed or suspected.

Her relatives realised something was amiss. Laxmibai Karve had a history of diabetes and uterine problems. And her doctor was the same Anant Chintamun Lagu!

Laxmibai Karve was a resident of Shukravar Peth in Pune. Before her marriage to a rich widower Anant Ramachandra Karve in 1922, she was known as Indumati, Indutai or Indu Ponkshe. As was the custom, she was renamed Laxmibai after marriage.

Laxmibai had two sons Ramachandra and Purshottam alias Arvind, who died in 1954. Anant Ramachandra Karve died in 1945 of pleurisy. He was treated by doctors Anant Lagu and his brother B. C. Lagu.

Soon, they came to know that Laxmibai and Lagu had taken a train together from Pune to Mumbai for meeting a specialist doctor there. Inquiries revealed that several properties and bank accounts of Laxmibai Karve were transferred to Lagu based on apparently forged documents.

Laxmibai’s friends and relatives wrote to the Chief Minister of the Bombay state expressing doubts. Lagu was arrested on charges of murdering Karve by poisoning her during the train journey with the motive of grabbing her wealth.

Investigations revealed that the name of Laxmibai’s brother in his letter to the hospital was fictitious. She had no brother. Letters purportedly written by her were all posted in R.M.S. vans and not from any of the regular post offices in a town or village.

These letters had rich details and intimacies which made them appear genuine except for Laxmibai’s handwriting and signature.

It was alleged that Lagu had ingratiated himself with her and gradually started managing her affairs. He planned to get hold of her properties and forged her signature.

After poisoning her, Lagu took an unconscious Laxmibai to the hospital after taking her possessions, and gave a wrong name to cover her identity. He spread the story that she was alive and misappropriated her properties.

Lagu was sentenced to death by the trial court and the sentence was confirmed by the High Court and the Supreme Court.