11 members of family found dead: Burari residents in state of shock

People living in the lane in north Delhi's Burari, where 11 members of a family were found dead in their residence under mysterious circumstances today, are in a state of shock.

Every day, people crossing the Bhatia residence would read a Hindi verse the family had written on a board put up outside the grocery store owned by it but today, all they could see was reporters, TV cameras and policemen moving in and out of the residence.

There were discussions about whether the deceased were killed or had committed suicide as one boarded a "Gramin Seva" autorickshaw from the GTB Nagar metro station, which is six kilometres away from Sant Nagar in Burari, from where the incident was reported.

The passengers in the autorickshaw could be heard discussing the massive traffic jam in the morning hours since Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal paid a visit to the "house of horror".

"We got to know about the incident through news channels around 8 am. Everybody is talking about it. There are also stories floating that the family did it due to some religious belief," a woman passenger said.

Neighbours said they were scared after hearing about the incident.

"If they were killed, we are worried about the law-and order situation in Burari. Last month, there was a shootout in broad daylight in which a commoner was also killed and on the first day of this month, 11 bodies are found in a house," a resident of the locality said.

Others were worried about whether anyone would even think about buying the house where the bodies were found and after the police finding handwritten notes indicating a "religious" angle to the deaths.

Even as the police were looking for clues in the house, it was chaos outside as locals had turned up in large numbers, seeing the media frenzy.

While the bodies were being taken away, some were seen making videos on their phones. A neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said his elderly mother had fallen sick after hearing about the incident.

Another neighbour said there was a feeling of fear in the locality.

"My tenants were so scared that they told me they were going to stay at a relative's place for a week," he added.

The police found some handwritten notes in the house, which, they said suggested that the family might have been into some sort of religious practices.

The deceased were identified as Narayan Devi (77), her daughter Pratibha (57), two sons Bhavnesh (50) and Lalit Bhatia (45).

Bhavnesh's wife Savita (48) and their three children -- Meenu (23) and Nidhi (25) and Dhruv (15) -- were also found dead, along with Lalit's wife Tina (42) and their 15-year-old son Shivam.

Pratibha's daughter Priyanka (33), who got engaged last month and was supposed to get married in November, was also found dead.