Rakesh Kamal, Dover, Massacusetts man changes million dollar life insurance policy making his brother (who he owed vast sums to) as back up benefactor days ahead of murder suicide of his wife, Teena and their daughter (Arianna) and self as a tussle for the policy payout now takes place.
A family of three who were discovered shot at the hands of the husband and father at a Dover, Massachusetts home had faced looming eviction, massive debt along with a last minute change to a million dollar life policy which was changed days ahead of a murder-suicide.
Rakesh Kamal, 57, is alleged to have shot his wife, Teena Kamal, 54, and their 18-year-old daughter, Arianna, before fatally turning the weapon on himself at the family’s upscale Dover mansion in December.
Fight over life insurance policy payout
Amid the ongoing financial turmoil the family was experiencing, a fax signed by Teena was sent to Virginia-based life insurance company Genworth four days prior to the tragedy 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.
Following the aftermath of the December murder-suicide, Rakesh’s brother, Manoj, and Teena’s brother, Sandeep Bedi, have been embroiled 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.
Financial implosion
Conflicted as to who the money should go 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, as well as 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 tell Teena about the loan.
‘I would never in my wildest dreams question what Rick is doing,’ Bedi told the paper in January.
Veneer of grand success hid ugly truths
‘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 September 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.
Assessors records show the Kamals sold the home at 8 Wilson’s Way (the family home) to Wilsondale Associates LLC in December 2022 for $3 million, well below the town’s assessed property value of $6.8 million.
The sale of the family home coincided with the Kamals being ordered to vacate their 21-room Dover mansion, before being served with eviction proceedings in May 2023, according to the Boston Globe.
Of note, the Kamals purchased the home in Feb. 2019 for $4 million, most of it borrowed. A $3.8 million mortgage taken from its builder was due in full in two years.
Rakesh also owed $760,000 to a Maryland-based company, nTech Connect, after it loaned $550,000 to a company Rakesh operated, Cambetas in December 2022.
Rakesh Kamal claimed he would personally repay the business loan in four months as he was waiting for an ‘international wire transfer.’
He had guaranteed the loan himself using his widowed mother’s home in Woburn as collateral as his Dover residence was in the process of being foreclosed upon.
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.’
Arianna Kamal, a 2023 graduate of Milton Academy, was a first-year student at Middlebury College in Vermont when she was killed.
Her mother, Teena, served as president of Milton Academy’s Upper School Parents’ Association and also on the regional board of the American Red Cross of Massachusetts.
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 according to the nypost.
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.
Dover is an affluent community in Norfolk County, west of Dedham and southwest of Boston. The town’s population was 5,923 at the 2020 U.S. Census. With a median income of more than $250,000, Dover is the wealthiest town in Massachusetts. A status that Rakesh Kamal had desperately attempted to fit in, until one day he couldn’t…
