In a gruesome incident, a man killed his wife, daughter and son in a hotel here and fled.

According to Puri Superintendent of Police Anup Kumar Sahu, on December 9, a tourist family headed by Amit Agarwal (32) from Brundaban in Ghaziabad of Uttar Pradesh had checked into hotel Zamindar Palace situated along the sea beach and booked a double-bed room for seven days. On the Saturday night, the hotel manager informed the Sea Beach police that the occupants of the room did not respond to repeated knocks at the door.

The room was opened late in Saturday night in the presence of police. Everybody was shocked to find three bodies lying on the bed. The bodies were those of a woman, her seven-year-daughter and four-year-old son. The forensic experts believed they were drugged before being strangulated to death as no mark of struggle was noticed in the room.

It was found that a strange ritual was performed by the killer putting traditional ingredients like basil leafs, flowers, Ganga Jal (sacred water), etc, on each body. The police are investigating into all possible aspects including human sacrifice. The death came 36 hours ago, experts believe. A passport of Amit was recovered from the room while names of other family members were yet to be ascertained, the police said.

The hotel manager said Amit had paid `15,000 in advance for a seven-day stay. The family members were moving about in the beach and visited the Shree Jagannath Temple. The hotel staff did not notice any unusual behaviour of Amit. However, Amit absconded since Saturday morning.

A case of murder was registered at the Sea Beach police station and an alert was made to track Amit while the Ghaziabad police were informed of the matter; SP Sahu said. The police sent the bodies for post-mortem.