Behind mystery death of 2 brothers in Goa, a family that took ‘fasting’ to the extreme: ‘Ate just one date a day’

In the autopsy report, doctors pointed to “severe cachexia and malnourishment” as being the likely reason for the brothers’ death, police sources said.

The deceased were identified as Mohammad Zuber Khan (29), an engineer, and his younger brother Aafan Khan (27). Their mother, Ruksana Khan, is undergoing treatment at a government hospital and will be referred to the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour (IPHB), Goa Medical College, for an assessment of her mental health.

On Wednesday, when the brothers’ father, Nazir Khan, visited them at their house at Aquem in Margao, there was no response at the door. Nazir then informed police.

“The house was locked from inside. In one room, the younger son was found dead. The elder son was found dead on the floor in an adjacent room and his mother was found unconscious on a bed,” an officer said, adding that there was no food or water in the house and that the bodies were shrivelled.

According to police, Nazir had visited the house earlier this week as well, but his wife and sons did not allow him to enter.

Akhbar Khan, paternal uncle of the brothers, said his nephews and their mother had not left the house for several months and had been “completely cut off” from everyone.

Nazir had moved to another house in Margao due to frequent disagreements with his wife and sons, especially over “fasting” and “irregular eating patterns”, Akhbar said.

The brothers had spent a majority of their childhood at their maternal home in Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district, according to relatives.

Akhbar said Zuber had been working as an engineer in Sawantwadi, in Sindhudurg, and that Aafan was a B.Com graduate. He said Zuber was married and had two children. However, the brothers later moved to Margao with their parents and had been unemployed since then, their uncle said.

Relatives said Zuber’s wife and children did not move with him to Margao.

“The brothers were quite attached to their mother… Why would someone just stop eating? The family was quite well off. I do not know if the brothers and their mother were under stress or if they suffered from a mental health condition,” Akhbar said.

Police said family members had told them that Zuber, Aafan and Ruksana were eating just one date per day.

“Nazir used to drop some money for groceries through a small keyhole into the house, but in the past few weeks, the family had shut that keyhole. They had also placed some furniture next to the main door of the house to restrain people from entering,” an officer said, citing testimonies of a family member.