New Delhi family deaths could be ritual mass suicide, says police

Bodies of 11 members of a family were recovered from their home on Sunday

Police in New Delhi suspect a possible mystical suicide ritual in the death of eleven members of a family.

According to Washington Post, 10 of the 11 Bhatia family members were found hanging in their home with notes detailing a suicide ritual. The last member, a 77-year-old grandmother was found lying dead in another room. The bodies were found in their home on Sunday.

Senior police official Alok Kumar said that the family was allegedly deeply spiritual and added that “on the face of it,” the deaths look "like a case of suicide.”

Police are taking into account evidence from post-mortem reports and testimonies from relatives and neighbours. They are not ruling out mass homicide as cause of death, as yet.

According to Kumar, notes were found in the family home with detailed instructions of the bodies' positioning and how the mouths and eyes of the family should be taped.



“They have been maintaining a diary for the last two to three years, and in it, we found quite a graphic description, which matched the condition of the bodies at the scene of the crime.”

The notes also describe the family's last meal--a stack of 20 flatbread delivered to their home on the evening of their deaths.

Bhatias' neighbours and relatives have said that the Hindu family was deeply religious and engaged in prayer thrice a day. According to relatives, the family showed no indication of extremist tendencies. Their faith however had intensified after one member's accident. 45-year-old Lalit had recovered after a plank of plywood fell on his head a decade ago. The family went to a nearby temple. New Delhi Police are investigating whether the family was linked to a particular spiritual leader.

The bodies were found on Sunday morning when a neighbour, 79-year-old Gucharan Singh, went to check why the family had not opened their convenience store. He went inside the home and saw the 10 hanging bodies.

“I saw it and came out. I couldn’t bear to look,” he said. Singh told Washington Post that the family dog had been tied up on the roof of the Bhatia home. The animal is now in police custody.

Among the deceased were two boys, 15, and a young woman. The woman, according to relatives' testimony, was to marry and had been planning a wedding.

According to a police press release, there was no evidence to indicate a break-in. The house did not appear to be ransacked and gold jewelry was found on the women's bodies. Cell phones were also found in the house. Police looked at surveillance video from the street, as well. Cameras trained towards the main door did not show anyone entering or leaving the house on the night the deaths occurred.



Samir Parekh, director of the Department of Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences at Fortis Healthcare, has spoken out on the disturbing event. Parkeh has said that pact suicides are normally led by a dominant member of the family.

"When a key family member decides that it’s time to end their life, the rest are left in a very difficult situation,” he claimed, adding that socio-economic reasons or status change can contribute to pact suicide.

On Monday, relatives gathered outside the family home claiming they did not believe the family could have engaged in mass suicide.

Anju Bhat often visited the family, particularly the 77-year-old woman Narayana. “This is all lies; she didn’t believe in these things,” Bhat insisted, responding to the claim of the suicide ritual. “I came here just a month ago. Whenever we saw each other, she’d bare her heart, and I’d bare mine. She had a very nice manner.”

According to Tiloki Nath, a 70-year-old relative, “This was murder for sure. One person may kill themselves, maybe two — but an entire family? Someone did this.”

The claim of mass suicide has been hard for the neighbours to believe, as well.

“They were good people. There was nothing wrong with them,” claims Rammati, a 70-year-old neighbour, “From the outside, you could never fault them. What happened inside, who knows?”



This article originally appeared in Washington Post.