Eighteen-year-old Kunal Chandgude purchased an Apple iPhone on EMI, but when he was unable to pay the monthly instalments, he sought his parents’ help. Scared by the chain of events, his mother, Sangita, jumped off the cliff. However, the iPhone EMI issue may not be the sole trigger.
This became the genesis of a domestic dispute resulting in the death of a family of three in Maharashtra’s Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar on August 21. This was the narrative shared when Kunal, threatening to jump off a hill, fell into a 250-foot-deep gorge along with his father, who was trying to bring him down.
As the probe into the deaths intensifies, police have found a video of Sangita that points to a strained relationship.
After being out of town for the past three months, Murlidhar had returned home two days before the incident, triggering fights.
The couple lost their elder son six years ago to an illness. Patil was returning home after collecting ashes of her sister, nephew, and brother-in-law Murlidhar, when she recorded a video message, expressing what her family is going through. She urged people to think of the family that has been left behind before making any video. Murlidhar was a truck driver, while Sangita was a homemaker.
Addressing the claim that Kunal drove his parents to death over an iPhone EMI, Patil urged people to “not spread rumours”. Patil said that her social media feed is full of videos peddling a false narrative around the death of the family. Patil said Sangita was the eldest of her parents’ four children. The death of their son led to a family dispute, and the two started living separately, according to sources.
