In its bid to unravel the mystery surmounting the death of 11 members of a family in Burari, the Delhi Police has accessed the Call Detail Records (CDR) of the last five months of each of the deceased.
All members of lalit Chundawat family except the eldest 77-year-old lady were found hanging under mysterious circumstances on Sunday following which the Delhi Police is burning its midnight oil to solve the enigma.
After rounds of questioning over 100 people, including relatives and neighbours, the Delhi Police is now focused on CDRs of the family members of the last four-five months as it was around this time that the notes confiscated from their house make a mention of “badh tapasya” or Banyan tree prayer rituals that the family replicated on the intervening night of the incident.
According to police official, all those who spoke to the 11 family members on the phone would be asked to appear for questioning.
“On the basis of these records, a list of more than 500 people to be questioned has been prepared and different teams will question them,” the officer said.
Ten of the 11 members of the family were found hanging from an iron-mesh in the ceiling on Sunday, while the body of 77-year-old Narayan Devi, the head of the family, was lying on the floor in another room of the house. Her daughter Pratibha (57) and two sons Bhavnesh (50) and lalit (45) were among the deceased.
Bhavnesh’s wife Savita (48) and their three children - Maneka (23), Neetu (25), and Dhirendra (15) were also found dead. The others who were found hanging were lalit’s wife Tina (42), their 15-year-old son Dushyant and Pratibha’s daughter Priyanka, who was engaged last month and was supposed to get married by year-end.
On Wednesday, police had recovered CCTV footage that showed some members bringing stools and wires that were used for their hanging. They had also found 11 diaries which had “psychological musings” and things about attaining “road to God”.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police has questioned their employees, including a mason who had installed 11 pipes at their house and his daughter, a senior officer said on Friday. The police is questioning the relatives, neighbours and employees of the family. More than 100 people have been quizzed so far.
Also, police questioned Geeta, who according to some reports was the “self-styled god-woman” lalit had met, for about two hours on Friday. Geeta is the daughter of the mason who had fixed the 11 pipes, the police said.
According to reports, lalit had met Geeta recently, and he had told her that he would meet her again on July 10. Geeta told police she had nothing to do with the deaths.
“The only link Geeta has with the family is that she is the daughter of the mason. She told police she had never met lalit,” the officer said.