Six members of the Badaule family including two children, one of them a 10-month-old child, were seriously injured in the incident that took place sometime around midnight on Tuesday.

The deceased and the injured lay unattended in a pool of blood through the night, as the dacoits allegedly `celebrated' with food and drink at the crime spot after wreaking their mayhem. Evidence of their having eaten leftover food and consumed milk inside the house late last night were found by investigators.

Raja, the pet dog of the Badaule family, was also attacked by the culprits. He was found lying unconscious outside the house.

The incident came to light when the head of the family, Ramling Channappa Badaule, returned home after his duty ended this morning. When he informed the Wanowrie police of the gruesome incident, they drove over and shifted the victims to Sassoon Hospital.

Ramling's married daughter Gangubai Laxman Bharamshetti (30), son-in-law Laxman (35) and their ten-year-old daughter Sarubai were proclaimed dead on arrival at the hospital.

Ramling's wives Mangal (35) and Gajarabai (45), son Nagesh (15), and daughter Ujwala (11) Laxman's eight-year-old daughter eight-year-old Sangita and ten-month-old son Arjun were administered first aid at Sassoon Hospital before being shifted to a private hospital.

Each of the victims has suffered several deep wounds on their head, forehead, face and neck. All of them are in critical condition, hospital sources said.

Ramling, who hails from a drought-affected area in Solapur district came to Pune in search of a job about five years ago. He has been working with the Ahura Gardens Project for the last two years.

The project owner, P A Inamdar from Pune Cantonment, had purchased a four-acre plot of land adjoining the Pune-Daund railway line near Mundhwa Railway Crossing from Hiralal Kodre around five years ago, said site supervisor Sudhakar Kamble.

Ramling, who was assigned to guard the property, stayed at the site ever since he started working for the Ahura Gardens project, Kamble said. The other members of Badaule family also worked with the project on a daily-wage basis, he added.

Ramling said he had gone to find work as a watchman at a bungalow in Koregaon Park area as he was about to change jobs, when the incident took place.

Ramling, who had left home at around 9 p.m. yesterday, returned at around 9.45 this morning only to find his family members lying in a pool of blood outside the house.

The dacoits had ransacked the entire house in search of valuables. However, they found nothing to steal except for some imitation jewelry worn by the women, police said. Later, one of the victims, Ujwala Badaule, revealed that the unidentified culprits attacked them while they were fast asleep.

The police found a chappal and a purse at the crime scene. Tipu, a sniffer dog summoned from Telco and Sultan, the other sniffer from the State CID (Crime), working on the scent from the chappal picked up a trail for about one and a half km which ended at the road linking Magarpatta area with the Pune-Solapur Road at Hadapsar, said the handlers Til Bahaddur Gurang and M D Giri.

Some fingerprints were also found at the crime scene, revealed fingerprint experts R V Ingale, V H Satav, G M Patil and I G Sharma.

Various senior officials including Deputy Commissioners of Police Chandrakant Ughade and Jagan Nath, Assistant Commissioners of Police Pratap Dighavkar, Balasaheb Bastawadkar and Kacheshwar Rokade, Inspectors Nandakumar Pardeshi, Vinayak Jadhav, Shamrao Dhulubulu and Dara Irani as well as Additional Superintendent of Police (CID) S S Mane have rushed to the spot.