The eleven dead bodies of members of Bhatia family were cremated at Nigambodh Ghat amid heavy police presence. Delhi: In one of the most appalling and mysterious deaths recorded in India, an entire family living in Sant Nagar of Burari area of the National Capital presumably committed mass suicide. All eleven members of the Bhatia family were found dead on Sunday morning by their neighbours. Usually, every morning, the family opened their provisional store set up on the ground floor of their house by 6 am. However, this Sunday morning was different. Till 7:30 am the shutters of the store were not opened. When the milk supplier came around 5 am to distribute the milk to family, no one opened the door despite repetitive ringing of doorbells. All phone calls to Bhatia family went unanswered. Then the neighbours of the Bhatia family, Gurcharan accompanied by Ramvati went to check on the wellbeing of the Bhatia family. The view that Gurcharan saw shocked him to the core. He saw 10 bodies hanging from the iron mesh, with their eyes and ears taped while an eleventh body lay on the floor with signs of strangulation. The Bhatia family was like any regular Indian family. The family was led by an aged mother (75) who had two sons and a daughter. The sons were identified as Lalit (42) and Bhupi Bhatia (46). The two daughters-in-law were - Tina (38) and Savita Bhatia (42), three granddaughters were Neetu (24) and Meenu (22) Bhatia and Priyanka (30), two grandsons were Dhruv (12) and Shivam Bhatia (12). The elderly woman's daughter was identified as Pratibha (55). As per sources, Pratibha's daughter Priyanka recently got engaged. There was no inkling whatsoever that the family is about to commit such a shocking act. Also read: Delhi Burari deaths case: AIIMS doctor suggests 'psychological autopsy' to uncover the mystery The results of the autopsy of shocking deaths of 11 members of Bhatia family Delhi’s Burari area suggest that they committed suicide. The police booked an occultist and his aide for questioning on Monday in relation to the deaths. In contrast to autopsy reports, the eldest son of the now deceased Narayani Devi, Dinesh has submitted a complaint claiming murder of Bhatia family against unidentified persons. As per news agency IANS, Dinesh said, "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." He further added that every Hindu family worships, every family conducts hawans and kirtans, so did his family. He questioned what was unusual in it. He alleged that this does not mean that any godman or occultist is behind their deaths. Dinesh visited his family 10 days ago. “The entire family was happy as my sister Pratibha's daughter Priyanka had got engaged," he said. . @tanvishukla: Was this family led to mass suicide because of their superstitions? Or is there an external hand? Was this murder that the police is not looking at? #BurariDeathMystery pic.twitter.com/Ms0MZR2lCx — Mirror Now (@MirrorNow) July 2, 2018 The eleven dead bodies of members of Bhatia family were cremated at Nigambodh Ghat amid heavy police presence. As per the investigation in charge, Joint Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar the initial post-mortem reports suggested that this might be the case of mass suicide. He further added that there were no signs of strangulation or scuffle. The autopsy was conducted by a medical board of six doctors. The autopsy further revealed that only 77-year-old Narayani Devi had died due to strangulation out of eleven dead. As per a report in Times Now, police suspects strongly that the deaths were a part of a suicide pact carried under the religious or mystical influence. The police are currently matching the fingerprints of the deceased to ascertain the pattern behind the hanging. Fingerprint study can also reveal who strangulated Narayani Devi. As per the reports, the eleven out of six members had dinner before the death, however, the quantity of food found in their stomach was abysmal. Police have also seized 35-page handwritten note from the prayer area of the crime site. As per Times Now sources, It was suggested that the notes were written by the younger son of Narayani Devi, 42-year-old Lalit. On Sunday, ten bodies were found hanging from the ceiling which were blindfolded and gagged. The hands of the bodies were tied behind their back. The oldest of all, Narayani Devi, was found dead on the floor. In another bizarre fact, police have also found 11 pipes with different angles installed in the house wall at Sant Nagar Burari. The reason behind the installation of the 11 pipes has not been discovered yet.<doc-sep>Representational image | Photo Credit: Thinkstock The recent case of Burari mass suicides which shocked the country after the bodies of 11 members of the Bhatia family was found hanging from an overhead wire mesh while the aged lady in the family was lying on the floor. As the investigation proceeded, police ruled out robbery as there were no signs of missing valuables. When the mysterious handwritten notes were found, they pointed towards some definite spiritual practices within the family. More often than not, mass suicides occur in a religious background. As the cult worshippers have been known to be utterly devoted to their cause, the influence of occult leaders cannot be undermined. History is a witness to the brainwashing by cult leaders which led to hundreds of people to their deaths. The suspension of rational thinking, as well as the feeling of being delivered, has been the tipping point in several cases like Heaven's Gate and Jonestown mass killings. The victims in the former were convinced that they were “exiting their human vessels” in order to reach an extraterrestrial spaceship. Here are a few instances of cult-related mass suicides recorded in history: 1. Jonestown Massacre: The Peoples Temple Leader Reverend Jim Jones directed over 900 members of the cult People's Temple to commit suicide in order to be saved from an invasion by the Soviet Union on November 18, 1978. One-third of the 909 people who died that day were children who were poisoned with cyanide by their parents. As per reports, the Jones town massacre was the single most deadly non-natural disaster in the American history. The Peoples Temple leader found a remote location in the South American country of Guyana and several members followed him there. Jonestown was alternatively known as 'Peoples Temple Agricultural Project'. On the day of the mass suicides, he called everyone to a pavilion and delivered a speech while instructing them to drink down their cyanide punch. In a tape recording of the event, several children can be heard crying before the noise is drowned towards the end as they succumbed to poisoning. 2. Heaven's gate On March 26, 1997, the bodies of 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult were found in a San Diego villa after cult leader Marshall Applewhite persuaded his followers to commit suicide so that their souls could escape the earth and enter a spacecraft. The members of Heaven's gate believed that the earth was about to be “wiped clean, renewed, refurbished, and rejuvenated”, a fairly new age concept. In order to save themselves, they needed to escape immediately. The leader, Applewhite, said in his recordings that this will take their souls to another “level of existence above human”. As per a report by Daily News, the suicide was well planned since each member's body had exactly $5.75 in a pocket. All of them wore a Star Trek-inspired arm patch that read, "Heaven's Gate Away Team." They were also found covered with a purple cloth wearing Nike sneakers. 3. The Order of the Solar Temple The members of this cult were led to believe that the earth will meet a natural disaster, much along the lines of new age concept based cult Heaven's Gate in 1994-1995. The cult was based on the ideals of Knights Templar. They believed that the suicides would take them to the planetary system of Sirius. In view of the disaster, the members believed that they should retire from earth prematurely and attain salvation. As per a report, in October, 994, the secret society was exposed when 23 bodies were discovered in Fribourg in Switzerland, 25 others in Swiss Canton of Valais. Most people either took their own lives or were ritualistically murdered. Their bodies were found in a circle and all were dressed in the order's ceremonial robes while their heads were covered with plastic bags. This happened five days after three other people, a Swiss couple and their infant son Emmanuel Dutoit, had been killed in Canada. The infant was repeatedly stabbed with a wooden stake as he was believed that he was the Antichrist. 4. Restoration of the Ten Commandments 778 lives were lost in Uganda in early 2000 due to the Christian 'doomsday cult' where members were led by the belief that the world will soon face an apocalypse, which eventually failed to come about and the incident was seen as mass murder orchestrated by the leaders. The group believed that they needed to ober and preach the Ten Commandments of Jesus Christ around the world. Several people were engulfed in the 'inferno' in a church belonging to the group after it was sealed shut and set ablaze, killing the sect members. Whether it was a mass suicide or a mass murder, it was never clear. During subsequest investigation, more murdered bodies were recovered.<doc-sep>Burari deaths: Explore murder not suicide angle, say relatives NEW DELHI: Two diaries found at the Sant Nagar "house of horror" have helped police make some sense of the bizarre "mass suicides". A day after TOI reported the diaries' contents, a special team in crime branch minutely studied them and is preparing a report.According to sources, it appeared that Lalit, Narayani Bhatia's youngest son, had been making notes on someone's "directions" - possibly his father, Gopal Das Bhatia, who died 10 years ago. "It appears that Lalit had been hallucinating that his father was giving instructions to the family through him," said an officer who studied the diaries.The notings indicate that the family, at some point, may have tried to organise a "meeting" with Lalit's late father.Cops said it was evident that the family was blindly following all these "directions". One of the last notings reads that that the mother would feed rotis to everyone (ma sabko roti khilayegi). This has been corroborated as the family ordered 20 rotis from a nearby shop for which it paid Rs 200. They didn't order any vegetables. The police have found the restaurant bill in the house. The food was delivered around 10.40pm.As TOI reported on Monday, the police confirmed that the diaries gave a step-by-step account of what happened on that night. It had detailed instructions for “mass salvation”, including how the hangings should be conreducted.The Bhatias, who ran a shop in the area, seemed to have followed the instructions, some of which may have been written months ago. They conducted a “havan” hours before the suicides.A senior police officer said: “Right from asking them to stand on stools, to the mother lying on a separate bed in the other room, and Pratibha, the widowed sister of Lalit, to hang near the temple’s chaukhat — everything is mentioned in detail in the notings.” He added: “The first entry in the diary is of 2015.For a few months, there are no entries... then it starts again... There is a gap between most entries... In all, there are around 40-50 pages.” Sources confirmed that the entries in the registers had become more frequent after January this year, indicating that Lalit’s condition may have worsened.<doc-sep>Doctors have however said a 'suicide pact' remains only a theory at this point of time. As the deaths of 11 family members at a north Delhi home remained shrouded in mystery, mental health experts said on Monday that people in mass suicide cases generally "show commonalities" and suggested that a "psychological autopsy" be conducted in the case to unravel the puzzle. The deceased, including seven women and two children, were found hanging from an iron-mesh in the ceiling on Sunday. The incident has baffled investigators and psychiatrists. Police suspect the deaths were part of a suicide pact after handwritten notes found at the house indicated a "religious or spiritual angle". But two members of the family on Monday dismissed the suicide pact theory and insisted the 11 people were killed. A senior doctor from the department of psychiatry at AIIMS suggested that a "psychological autopsy" be conducted in the case to get to the bottom of the mystery. "In layman's term, a psychological autopsy would mean interacting with the victims' relatives, friends and acquaintances to see if there was any pattern - like if they were reading the same book or similar themed books or were part of any cult or were influenced by any occultist," he told PTI on the condition of anonymity. The doctor said the cause of the deaths has not been ascertained yet and therefore a 'suicide pact' remains only a theory at this point of time. Asked what factors drove people to commit suicide en masse, he said: "People who are emotionally very unstable, gullible or vulnerable are prone to enter into suicide pacts". Generally there are several commonalities in such cases, whether of age, religion or some other aspect. "In the Burari case, there is an entire spectrum of age from 15 to 77. And the emotional status of a young person is very different from a middle-aged or old person. Also the number 11 in this case is rather overwhelming for committing such acts," he said. Ten of those dead were found hanging from the iron-mesh, while the body of the 77-year-old Narayan Devi was lying on the floor in a room of the house. The deceased had their mouth taped and faces covered with pieces of cloth cut from a single bed-sheet. Only Devi' face was not covered. Bhawna Barmi, senior clinical psychologist at Fortis Escorts Hospital in Okhla, said: "A common theme in majority of suicidal cults is that they believe in an apocalyptic theology." "Mass or cult suicides occur mostly in groups that feel stuck in their lives and they believe that they are unable to control the consequences of their life. Hence, they often believe that death is the only possible option," she said. Asked what behavioral signs such people exhibited, she said: "Signs include isolation from any group activity or gathering or avoidance of any social interaction with behavioral changes that can be evident if paid attention to." Other signs include talking about feeling hopeless or having no purpose; talking about feeling trapped or being in unbearable pain; and talking about being a burden to others. "The society around such people should be aware of what is happening around us for our own and other's safety. We should be vigilant and remove the idea of being ignorant just because it is convenient," Ms Barmni said.<doc-sep>
The video is of Priyanka's engagement, granddaughter of Narayan Devi Highlights The video that has emerged is of Priyanka's engagement Priyanka was among those found dead in the house in Delhi's Burari She is the daughter of Narayan Devi's daughter Pratibha Two women in lehengas and two boys in silk kurtas and jackets danced to a popular Hindi song as a crowd cheered - a wedding video that may have been unremarkable but for the fact that all four were found hanging in their Delhi home just two weeks later, on Sunday. A day after 11 bodies were found in the home in north Delhi's Burari that belonged to the Bhatias, the police say much of the evidence points at a mass suicide. One of the arguments against the theory is the engagement of 33-year-old Priyanka Bhatia on June 17. A cousin has said that the night before the bodies were found, Priyanka had chatted with him about wedding shopping. It is her engagement party video that is in circulation online. Those seen on video are Meenu, 23, Neetu, 25 and Dhruv and Shivam, both 15. Meenu, Neetu and Dhruv were the children of Bhavnesh Bhatia, one of the six children of Narayan Devi, 77. Shivam was the son of Lalit Bhatia, another son of Narayan Devi. Priyanka, who was engaged, was the daughter of Narayan Devi's daughter Pratibha. Relatives found it difficult to reconcile the dancing quartet on the video with the horror of the bodies at the Burari house. "I can't believe that they committed suicide. Everyone was so happy. Someone has killed my family and the police have to find them," said Sujata Nagpal, another daughter of Narayan Devi, who lives in Panipat. On Sunday morning, Narayan Devi was lying on the floor. Everyone else in the household, including the wives of Bhavnesh and Lalit, were found hanging from the ceiling, standing close to each other, their faces completely wrapped in bandage and their hands tied behind the back. The lone survivor in the grisly scene was the family's dog. There were no signs of robbery or struggle; only Narayan Devi was strangled, the police believe. An autopsy has confirmed that at least six died of hanging, not strangling.Handwritten notes found in the house point at ritualistic suicide, said the police. The instructions found in the notes matched the way the bodies were found.