Indian family dies in ‘spiritual’ mystery

POLICE INVESTIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES AS ELEVEN FOUND HANGING AT DELHI HOME

ELEVEN members of a family were found dead in Delhi last Sunday (30), most of them hanging from the ceiling of their home, blindfolded, gagged and with hands tied behind the back, with police unable to offer any concrete explanation about what happened.

A police statement said some handwritten notes were found in the house “which point towards ob­servance of some definite spiritual/mystical prac­tices by the whole family”.

“These notes have strong similarity with the man­ner in which the mouths, eyes etc of the deceased were tied and taped.” This angle was being investi­gated and a case of murder registered.

The home of those who died is above a grocery store the family owned in the Burari district in a northern part of Delhi.

It is near to where three people were killed and several injured in a shootout between two gangs two weeks ago, but police said there was no apparent link.

Last Sunday’s dead were four men and seven women, including teenagers and a 75-year-old woman who was found on the floor. The others were hanging from a railing attached to the ceiling, media reports said.

Police said the family included the woman, her two sons and their wives, a daughter and grandchil­dren. A neighbour found the victims early on Sun­day, police said.

“I haven’t seen such a crime before,” said Vineet Kumar, additional deputy commissioner of police in north Delhi.

“We are investigating all possible angles including suicide, foul play. We can say something about the cause of death only after the postmortem reports.”

All the family members had died and there were no witnesses. Neighbours had not heard anything untoward, police said.

According to reports, the family migrated to the cap-ital from Rajasthan about two decades ago. (Reuters)