Sending shock waves through the area, 11 members of a family, including seven women, were found dead under mysterious circumstances at their residence in north Delhi’s Burari, police said.
Ten of those dead were found hanging from an iron-mesh ceiling used for ventilation, while the body of a 77-year-old woman was lying on the floor in another room of the house, media reports said.
Two of the deceased were children – both aged 15, reported PTI.
The eyes and mouth of those found hanging were covered with cloth and taped. The woman found dead on the floor was not blindfolded. The hands and feet of the children were tied, police reportedly said.
Police found some hand-written notes during a search of the house, which, they said, suggest the family might have into some sort of religious practices. But it was not immediately clear what exactly the contents of the notes were, the report said.
According to the police, they were informed by a neighbour that six to seven people have committed suicide. Upon reaching the spot, they found that 11 people have died, it added.
The deceased were identified as Narayan Devi, who was found dead on the floor, her daughter Pratibha (57), her two sons Bhavnesh (50) and Lalit Bhatia (45), reported PTI.
Bhavnesh’s wife Savita (48) and their three children – Meenu (23) and Nidhi (25), and Dhruv, aged 15, it said.
Lalit Bhatia’s wife Tina (42) and their 15-year-old son Shivam were also among those found dead.
Pratibha’s daughter Priyanka (33), who was engaged last month and would have married by the end of this year, was also found hanging.
Bhavnesh ran a grocery store on the ground floor of the house. He used to open his shop around 6 am, the family’s neighbour Amrik Singh reportedly said.
“Today, the shop was not opened till 7am. The milk van had arrived outside the shop. A couple of neighbours had gathered because the van driver was continuously honking. Then I opened the main gate and went upstairs. What I saw there left me shocked,” said Gurcharan Singh, another neighbour.
Another area resident reportedly said: “They were all hanging with ‘chunnis’ while Lalit had a telephone wire wrapped around his neck.”