11 of family dead: Burari wonders, is it mass murder or mass suicide?

Life outside the GTB Nagar metro station in North Delhi is normal on Monday, July 2, just like it would have been on Friday. A public van ride from the metro station to Burari seems normal as well. While some among the 10 people, at least, adjusting somehow in the packed van are listening to music, some are busy on phone calls. The scenario is so normal that one doubts for a second that one is travelling alongside people from a locality where 11 people from one family were mysteriously found dead on Sunday morning.

When asked about the incident, van driver Aarif, who says he stays a street away from the crime scene, says he cannot accept the police version that all 11 family members committed suicide. “They were all good people, they were well off, their businesses were doing great, the youngsters were making good money. I never heard of them having any quarrel in the society even though they stayed here for two decades; then why would all 11 of them commit suicide,” Aarif asks. When informed that police have reportedly found notes which hint at suicide for the sake of ‘salvation’, Aarif asks “So you want me to believe that not one out of the 11 contested taking such illogical step? And I’ve never heard of such firm believers in God killing 15-year-olds for the sake of salvation,” he says, as we reach the crime spot.

Media vans can be seen from distance as we approach. Newsmen are panning their cameras towards a policeman or towards a relative. But nobody seems to know what actually happened on that Saturday night. While senior police officials are reportedly investigating a “spiritual connection” in the deaths, relatives of the deceased say the family “would not do that at any cost”. “It’s a murder,” they allege, saying the deceased “were the best people” among all their extended families. Police has registered a case of murder at the behest of the relatives, but their line of investigation has so far been hinting at a mass suicide rather than mass murder.

But media reports on the forensic results seem to be supporting the police’s line of investigation. CNN News 18, which claims to have accessed the forensic report, reported no outsiders’ fingerprint was found inside the house. The teenagers—both 15-year-olds Dhruv and Shivam—were killed first followed by the women of the family. The last to die, reportedly according to the forensic report, was the 75-year-old Narayan Devi.

But that, the bereaved relatives say, looks fishy. “She was the only one to be strangled and the rest of them hanged themselves, according to the police. Did a 75-year-old woman kill all others after tying their hands and taping their mouths, and then strangle herself to death,” asked Sachin, nephew of Narayan Devi. He is basing his argument on initial media reports quoting police officials that sedatives were mixed in the family’s food on Saturday night. Then, says Sachin, at least one family member must not have consumed that food and killed everyone one-by-one, before killing him or herself. Was that member a 75-year-old lady, who the police themselves say was strangled because she could not climb the stool, asks Savita’s brother Rajendra Singh. Savita was the wife of Bhavnesh, Narayan Devi’s elder son.

At around 8:30 pm on Saturday, Sachin remembers a telephonic conversation with the deceased family. “They were all happy and excited. Everyone was talking about the marriage scheduled for later this year. There was no trace of any problem. How is it possible that people who know they are living the last hours of their lives will be so cool about it, even if they themselves are going to end their lives,” Sachin asks.

33-year-old Priyanka, who had recently been engaged on June 17 and was eagerly waiting for her marriage scheduled for December, was also among the deceased. “She was telling everyone about her excitement of getting married, she was so happy at the idea of her marriage, how can she commit suicide,” asked Singh, adding, “it’s just not believable”. In fact, according to neighbours, the whole family was excited about Priyanka’s upcoming marriage.

The two 15-year-olds had played cricket outside their house for sometime on Saturday night, said neighbours. The whole family looked happy and satisfied, they added.

But police is now reportedly on the lookout for a ‘tantric baba’. The police says the family were performing occult practices and some ‘tantric baba’ may have advised them to commit suicide for attaining moksha. According to an ABP News report, the cops have begun a search of one Jaanegadi Baba in the case, whose number was found in the call lists of one of the family members.

But Narayan Devi’s daughter Sujata completely rubbishes the idea of any such practices. “Our family wasn’t even so deeply into spirituality. Reciting ‘Hanuman chalisa’ once a day is all that we do,” argue she and other relatives, according to reports. The police’s argument, however, is based on the hand-written notes that they found on the spot. These notes hint towards “observance of some definite spiritual and mystical practices by the whole family", a police officer was quoted as saying by IANS.

"Incidentally, these notes have strong similarity with the manner in which the mouths, eyes and other parts of the deceased were tied and taped. The same is being investigated further to establish its links with the deaths," the officer had added.

CNN News 18 quoted a maid who had stopped working for the family six years ago, as saying “the family behave weirdly on occasions of some pooja and they were performing some strange practices.”

However, people present on the spot have a different version altogether. Right outside the area that police have blocked, stand a handful of ladies keenly observing the happenings in their locality. “They were all really good people and never did they behave strangely,” says Sarita. Another one adds, “yes, they were religious people and used to perform poojas and aartis, but don’t we all do the same who believe in God?”

The puzzle of whether what took place in one home on Saturday night was a mass murder or a mass suicide has gripped Burari. Nobody seems ready to accept that the family could have committed suicide, and nobody can think of a reason for why anyone would murder them, when they rarely ever raised their voice in the 22 years that they spent in that locality.

With agency inputs