The shocking death of 11 members of a family in New Delhi's Burari area is turning murkier with claims and counter claims flitting back and forth.
The police said 10 of the Bhatia family were found hanging from a railing in the ceiling, hands tied on the back, gagged and blindfolded. The deceased included seven women and four men, including teenagers and eldest member of the family 77-year-old Narayan Devi.
Delhi police investigators who cordoned off the spot spoke to a neighbour of the Bhatia's who first noticed their grocery shop closed on Sunday.
Inferences
The police said they found 'notes' which probably hinted at the family's penchant for occult practices. Seasoned investigators in Kerala said the possibility of occult 'interference' could not be ruled. They said occultism-induced deaths looked like homicides. There were cases where the practitioners of black magic killed their clients, often with their consent, to propitiate the divine.
Read more: Kids were playing cricket hours before mass death of Delhi family
Counter arguments
Narayan Devi's daughter Sujata Bhatia, who lived in Haryana, told a television channel that the family had no financial issues. They had no loans or personal mortgage, she said denying police statements that the deaths could be due to financial issues.
Kin shrug off suicide pact behind mass death of Delhi family
Other kin said Narayan Devi's grand-daughter Pratibha, engaged last month, was excited and preparing for her imminent wedding. The family had ordered food on Saturday night and it was delivered too. CCTV footage indicated that the food delivery was at 10:40 pm and no one entered or exited the house after that. Sources close to the family told the police that the circumstances and the family's general dispensation had little to indicate a mass suicide. Also, the children of the family played cricket in the neighbourhood the previous day.
The police said the 'random acts' of family members, especially children, were not to be deemed conclusive indicators of the family's general well-being. They said they were not ruling out any possibility.
Sujata said someone had killed her family. "It was all happy and there is no reason to believe that they committed suicide," she said.
The police first suspected the deaths to be connected to the June 18 shootout at Burari market. But the theory was later abandoned. But, the mystery seemed not to be dying down with media reporting the 'finding of 11 pipes jutting out' of a high wall on one side of the house. Occultism, probably.
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