MUMBAI, JUNE 12: The nine-year-old son of Tushar and Pratima Mavani, victims of a gory double murder last evening at Sector 9 in Vashi, today said he saw their servant, Kamlesh Pandey, hit his mother and father repeatedly with a cricket bat. The boy, who had just returned after playing cricket downstairs, too was attacked but saved his life by pretending he was dead.Mayank told police that when he returned home around 6.45 pm Pandey opened the door. Inside, he saw his mother lying in a pool of blood in one of the bedrooms. He said her throat was slit open and she was not moving. However, before Mayank could react, Pandey snatched the bat from his hands and gave him two swift blows on his head. As the boy slumped to the ground, Pande dumped him in an adjoining room.From where Mayank was lying, he saw Pandey going back to his mother and hitting her on the head repeatedly with the bat. Mayank said she did not move nor did she groan in pain, she was probably dead. Pandey then removed all the jewellery shewas wearing and as he was stuffing the valuables in a bag, the door bell rang again. Mayank knew it was her father, but did not had the strength or the courage to call out to him. When nobody responded to the bell, Tushar Mavani opened the door with his key only to be confronted by Pandey with a bloodied bat in his hand. He was hit three or four times with the bat and Mayank saw him collapsing to the ground.Pandey then quickly came out of the house. But, as he was closing the door he heard Mayank calling out to the watchman for help. Police believe that instead of taking the stairs down, he ran up to the terrace and climbed down the drainage pipe. Police have found blood marks on the stairs and the pipe.Some children at play below also saw him coming down the pipe but ignored him thinking he was a plumber.Police are confident that robbery was the motive. They said Pande had first threatened Pratima with a kitchen knife. However, when she tried to raise an alarm he slashed her throat. As a profuselybleeding Pratima clutched her throat and ran towards her bedroom, Pande followed her and inflicted another injury on her throat, killing her instantly.Navi Mumbai Police have launched a manhunt to catch the killer.Commissioner, Sudhakar Ambedkar, said: ``We have got some clues to the whereabouts of the servant. A police team has been sent with the building watchman to south Mumbai, where Pandey was working earlier. We hope to get a lead from there.''Pandey, who joined the Mavani household only three months back, had got the job through a watchman. The watchman has said he did not know Pandey too well, but had introduced him to the Mavanis. ``Pandey was not a Nepali.we suspect him to be from Garhwal,'' Ambedkar added. The Vashi police have rounded up 15 Nepali servants working in the area and are questioning them.
