Ranaware murder: Widow suffers multiple trauma

Varsha Ranaware, the 30-year-old woman whose three children were murdered by her husband before he committed suicide at their Baner Road residence on Tuesday morning, has been passing through multiple traumas.

A victim of domestic violence at the hands of her late husband, she is not only coping with the terrible tragedy of losing her children, but also suffering from the guilt of not taking her children with her when she left home on November 23.

Varsha is not only being blamed by one section of relatives for the death of her children, but her husband’s family has also openly warned her not to expect anything from the husband’s property.  All of this makes her plight far worse than her lone surviving daughter, Dhanashree (8), who escaped a murder attempt by her father, Chandrashekhar Ranaware.

A farmer-turned-landowner, Chandrashekar (40) killed three of his four children before hanging himself to death in his apartment near Mahabaleshwar Hotel. Dhanashree, the eldest, escaped death as the knot of the sari by which she was hanged was undone.

For the past three days Varsha, who is educated up to standard IX, has been wearing the same sari. Speaking in a broken voice, Varsha told this correspondent, “I have to live for my daughter now. She is everything for me. She has already gone through so much trauma. I will not commit the same mistakes made by my husband.”

It was at the age of 18 that her family accepted the marriage proposal of Chandrashekar, who was then a divorcee. On November 23, Varsha was beaten up badly by her husband, the marks of which are still visible on her arms, back and legs.

Speaking to DNA, Varsha’s father Ashok Shishupal (63) recalled, “Six months back I had lost my elder married daughter to domestic violence. Her daughter is residing with us. We were just recovering from the pain of this loss when this tragedy struck our family.”

Shishupal said he was in Ajmer (Rajasthan) when he heard of the tragedy and rushed to Pune. He said Varsha and Dhanashree would stay with him at Mahalunge Padwal in Ambegaon. “I will educate Dhanashree and Varsha and make them stand on their feet,” he said with a sense of resolution.

The father said that all relatives were blaming his daughter for the tragedy,  but it was Chandrashekar who suspected her character and behaved badly with her. The Shishupals had, therefore, stopped visiting Varsha’s residence.

Shishupal said that on November 23 Chandrashekar assaulted Varsha and threatened to kill the children if she did not leave her Baner Road residence. “It was in that state that she left the residence and took a lift in a truck to come home. She had injuries of domestic violence on her body and was admitted to a hospital in Ambegaon,” he recalled.

He claimed that on Thursday, two people claiming to be friends of  Chandrashekar visited Varsha and,  instead of consoling her,  started inquiring about her husband’s property, advising her to sell it to them. The three-storey building in which Varsha resides is prime property on Baner Road, owned by her late husband.