Pune, September 3, 2026 — A 45-year-old former Army serviceman accused of strangling his wife to death and attempting to kill their teenage son was found dead on Wednesday in what police have described as a suspected suicide in Khed taluka of Pune district.
Mahendra Shivaji Daundkar, who retired from the Army in 2019 and later worked as a security guard with a private firm in Vishrantwadi, was discovered hanging from a tree near the Bhima river in Chandoli village. Khed police said an initial inquiry indicated suicide and registered an accidental-death case. Further investigation is under way.
The alleged offences occurred on the night of Sunday, August 30, at the family’s residence in Sangam Garden on Wada Road in Rajgurunagar, Khed. Daundkar’s wife, Deepa Mahendra Daundkar, 40, was found unresponsive with injury marks on her neck. She was taken first to a hospital in Khed and later to a government hospital at Chakan, where doctors declared her dead.
According to the complaint filed by the couple’s 17-year-old son, Atharva, he had gone to a friend’s house in the same building around 9.30 p.m. At approximately 11.35 p.m., the friend’s mother received a missed call from Deepa. Atharva returned home at once. His father opened the door and told him not to disturb his mother, saying she had taken a tablet and gone to sleep. Atharva entered the bedroom, found his mother motionless, and noticed that her body was cold, her face had turned dark and bluish, and there were marks on her neck.
When the teenager confronted his father, Daundkar allegedly locked the bedroom door and attempted to strangle him with a cloth or dupatta. Atharva pushed him away, opened the door and raised an alarm. Police said Daundkar then picked up two kitchen knives, threatened to stab his son if he continued shouting, and slashed the boy’s right thumb during the struggle. Relatives living in the same building rushed to the house. Daundkar allegedly pushed his elderly father-in-law and fled toward the fields.
Khed police registered a case under Sections 103 (murder), 109 (attempt to murder) and 352 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita on the basis of Atharva’s complaint and launched a search for the accused.
Officers said Daundkar had frequently quarrelled with his wife over her strained relations with his sister and had left home earlier, on March 22, over the same issue. Deepa had at that time lodged a missing-person complaint. Police stated that the alleged motive for the August 30 incident was the same family dispute.
The body of the accused was found during search operations on Wednesday morning. Police have described the death as a suspected suicide pending further inquiry. The murder and attempt-to-murder case remains on record, though the principal accused is now deceased.
