Burari deaths: Police claims to have clues to identify ‘killer’

The notes that the police found at the house in Burari where 11 members from one family were found dead on Sunday morning has been police’s biggest aide so far in the ongoing investigations. The details noted in the diary, which is being maintained since 2015, according to the police, resembles the events that panned out on Saturday night when the family “killed themselves”, said the police.

The notes hinting at mysticism were found in a diary in the prayer area. The texts of pages discussed spirituality, salvation, rituals and few dates in the month of June. The notes were written on June 27 and 28 on the day of ‘Vat Purnima’.

The diary, the police explained to NH, has many resemblance to the crime scene and happenings on Saturday night at the Burari house. “One entry reads, maa sabko roti khilaegi (Narayani Devi (the mother’s name) will feed everyone rotis) and the food the family had ordered last night had just one item, 20 rotis,” said an officer, who did not want to be named, to National Herald. “It seems that the family did not expect to die, they were seemingly performing rituals superstitiously,” added the officer.

Another officer told IANS that the notes had instructions such as “everyone should be blindfolded properly, nothing but zenith should be visible to the eyes”. When you all were hanging during that period, God will miraculously appear and save you all at the moment."

The police officer said almost every instruction in the note seemed to have been followed by the family for “obtaining salvation”.

According to the police, it was Lalit Bhatia, the younger son of Narayani Devi, who had convinced the family of taking such step. He, according to the police, had claimed that he was in touch with his father’s soul. Gopas Das Bhatiya had died of natural causes a decade ago.

“It is Lalit who was maintaining those notes, which he was maintaining apparently every time after his father visited him in his dreams to ‘teach the family the way of life’. We have sent the notes for verifying the handwriting” the Police officer added.

Autopsies conducted on 11 members of a family found dead in their north Delhi home also suggest that they committed suicide, the police said. However, late on Monday, the police had also detained an occultist and his aide for questioning. The police had tracked Jhangedi baba after checking the call details of the deceased.

The family of the deceased refuse to accept the police version

“I was informed by a neighbour of my brother’s family that my brothers, mother and other family members were found dead in their house in Delhi. I reached Delhi on Sunday night and suspect that someone killed them. They have not died in a ritual which went wrong,” said Dinesh, Narayani Devi's eldest son.

"Every Hindu family performs worship, havans and kirtans. Thus, my family also did it. What is unusual in it? It doesn't mean that some godman or occultists killed them. I had visited them 10 days ago. The entire family was happy as my sister Pratibha's daughter Priyanka had got engaged," he said.

Sujata, Narayani Devi’s daughter also alleges foul play. “Our family was not even that spiritual, all they did was to chant Hanuman Chalisa a day,” she said, alleging, “someone has murdered my family”.

The dead, after their eyes being donated, were on Monday cremated at the Nigambodh Ghat here by family members and relatives amid heavy police deployment.

Joint Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar said initial post-mortem reports revealed that the bodies bore no marks of either strangulation or scuffle, indicating that it may either be a case of mass suicide or murder-suicide.

The deceased were Narayani Devi's sons Bhavnesh Bhatia, 50, and Lalit Bhatia, 45, and daughters Pratibha, 57, and Priyanka, 33. Bhavnesh's wife Savita, 48, and their children Nitu, 25, Monu, 23, and Dhruv, 15, were also found dead along with Lalit's wife Tina, 42, and their son Shivam, 15. The Bhatias ran a grocery stone and a plywood outlet in the neighbourhood.

Dinesh lives in Rajasthan's Kota while his another sister Sujata lives in Panipat in Haryana.

With agency inputs