The probe into the mysterious death of 11 members of a family in North Delhi’s Burari area on Sunday morning has revealed strange and chilling details pertaining to sorcery and apparition of the late father of the Bhatia family.
The notes recovered by the Delhi Police from the Bhatias’ house indicate that lalit, the 42-year-old male member of the family, was deeply influenced by his departed father’s soul as he used to claim to have seen him in his dreams and his father had often guided him to do things. Some of the notes stated that “one will not die” but attain something “great”, a police officer said.
lalit had narrated his dream sequences with his father’s soul to his family members and relatives and they had then claimed to have attained success by following the soul’s orders. “We are now investigating whether the soul of his father was dictating him to leave this world or he (lalit) was just hallucinating,” said a top cop.
Investigators are flummoxed to find 11 pipes in vicinity protruding from the outer wall of the house even as there is no need for water outlet there. Four of the pipes point straight while other four are bent. One pipe is a little away from the others. Sources said the positioning of pipes on the outer wall does point towards some occult influence over the family. The police are investigating the significance of the pipes.
Though the police suspect that the deaths were part of a suicide pact carried out in accordance with a superstitious practice, it has not ruled out the involvement of some outsiders or a tantric who could have been present in the house on the fateful Saturday night to guide the family to perform the “saadhna” that the family may have rehearsed early. “We have identified a particular sorcerer who was in touch with the family and could have played a role in the deaths of all the 11 members of Bhatia family,” police said.
The Delhi Police is also probing whether Bhatias had bequeathed their property to someone, say a tantric or an astrologer. Cops are also verifying financial transactions to know whether they had transferred money to any particular account. This will throw some light in identifying the mysterious man who could have cast a spell on the family to do away with the worldly belongings, said the official.
Crime Branch officials said the 16-page handwritten note contains details of a “Badh puja” (a ritual, which means “everybody should hang like the branches of a banyan tree”). Everybody should be on board, it was asserted in the note. According to tantric rituals, Badh puja is performed for longevity but the vivid description of this ritual in the note recovered from the house has left the investigators perplexed. The notes said no one should use phone, so six phones were found together on silent mode.
Senior police officials involved in the probe said they are probing the case from different angles as this is “one of its kind case” where 11 members of a family from 12 years to 77 may entered into some pact to die together. The CCTV footage procured from the neighbour’s house showed lalit entering his house with his pet labrodor around 11.15 pm on Sunday. There was no movement afterwards, they said. We are also probing the role of a tantric or an astrologer who practiced occult and was inside their house and somehow managed to evade the CCTV installed in the neighbourhood, said the police.
“We have scanned the notes written on two registers kept in the house. Writing experts who were roped in to throw some light on the writing patterns have opined that there are chances of the involvement of an outsider whose influence was quite overbearing on the family,” the official said.
Handwritten notes and a diary indicate the deaths were planned and that the family followed so-called instructions for “mass salvation”.
However, a relative suspects foul play in the incident, saying, “they were educated people and not superstitious”.
Ketan Nagpal, whose maternal grandmother was one of the deceased, alleged they were killed and dismissed the police theory that it could be a case of “suicide pact”.
Nagpal contended that even if they had to commit suicide, they would not have covered their faces and taped their mouth. Another relative said they had spoken to the family on the fateful night. They sounded “normal” and did not show any signs of depression, he added. “The family did not have enmity with anyone. But we suspect someone killed them,” he alleged.
The relatives claimed that there was no “religious angle” linked to the deaths.