Massive debt, the threat of eviction and a last-minute change to a million-dollar life insurance policy culminated in a Massachusetts father killing his wife and daughter before taking his own life inside their $5 million home, according to a report.
Rakesh Kamal, 57 and his wife, Teena, 54, and their 18-year-old daughter Arianna, were found dead in their Dover mansion as a result of a murder-suicide, authorities said.
Four days before the tragedy, a fax signed by Teena Kamal was sent to Virginia-based life insurance company Genworth requesting a change to her $1.25 million life insurance policy, according to the Boston Globe.
The document sought to make Teena Kamal’s husband and daughter the primary benefactors while adding Rakesh’s brother, Manoj Kamal as the contingent or backup beneficiary.
The original policy for Teena, 54, listed Rakesh, 57, who went by Rick, as the sole primary benefactor while Arianna was filed as the contingent, in case of her father’s death.
Since January, Rakesh’s brother, Manoj, and Teena’s brother, Sandeep Bedi, are entangled in a court battle as they uncover their siblings’ dark financial past.
Following the three deaths, Manoj, who was the one to discover the bodies inside the home, filed a claim with the life insurance company to collect the payout from the policy.
Bedi, who is administering his sister’s estate, had “raised concerns” with the company regarding the circumstances of the deaths and the change of beneficiary form, according to the outlet.
Trapped with a decision on who the money goes to, the life insurance company asked a federal court in Boston in April to decide the policy’s ultimate beneficiary.
Manoj and Bedi have until Aug. 2 to respond to the filing.
The two men can either settle or enter a potentially lengthy civil trial which could shed light on the motive behind the murder-suicide perpetrated by the reported “doting” father.
Rakesh Kamal had amassed massive debt from the $3.8 million mortgage he took out on the $4 million property he purchased with his wife on Valentine’s Day 2019, to a six-figure loan from a family member and a series of poor business deals in and out of the Boston area.
The software developer and entrepreneur had borrowed $500,000 from Bedi along with “a substantial sum of money,” from his brother Manoj, two separate affidavits viewed by the Boston Globe claim.
Rakesh had demanded his brother-in-law not to tell Teena about the loan.
“I would never in my wildest dreams question what Rick is doing,” Bedi told the paper in January.
“We put him on a pedestal so high you cannot imagine,“ he added. “So now, for us to reconcile not just that he murdered my sister and my niece, but that he was lying to us for years — it just cannot even sink in.”
Along with the massive debt, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy claim was filed in Teena’s name in Sept. 2022 listing liabilities between $1 million and $10 million, Boston 25 News reported, citing Federal Bankruptcy claims.
The case was dismissed a month later when the necessary forms weren’t filed.
In Dec. 2022, the Kamals were ordered to vacate their 21-room Dover mansion, before being served with eviction proceedings in May 2023, according to the Boston Globe.
Rakesh also owed $760,000 to a Maryland-based company nTech Connect after they loaned $550,000 to a company Rakesh operated, Cambetas in Dec. 2022.
For the business loan, Rakesh Kamal claimed he would personally repay in four months as he was waiting for an “international wire transfer.”
He had guaranteed the loan himself and using his widowed mother’s home in Woburn as collateral as his Dover residence was in the process of being foreclosed.
Bedi and the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office believe Teena died without knowing about her husband’s massive debt.
“Teena had no clue that there were financial problems,” Bedi, told the Boston Globe. “She thought that they were rolling in money.”
If the case goes to court, Manoj would argue for the insurance company to follow the newest revision of Teena’s policy, with the money going to him as the contingent beneficiary.
Bedi’s argument would center around the validity of the policy change request form “questioning its close proximity to the slayings, or calling into question whether the signature was really Teena Kamal’s.”
Teena’s signature had a witness but it was not revealed who it was.
Genworth policy does not allow the witness to also be the beneficiary.
If a judge or jury sides with Bedi’s argument, the life insurance policy would be decided based on the original one, but because the original listed benefactors, Rakesh and Arianna are dead, the money would go to Teena’s estate.
The money would first pay off attorney’s fees, funeral expenses, and any outstanding taxes before being issued to creditors and then next of kin.
Because Teena Kamal died without a will, the remaining estate would go to her parents in India.
