Burari deaths: CCTV footage shows family members brought stools, wires used for hanging

New Delhi: More morbid details came out in the mysterious deaths of 11 members of a family in Burari here as CCTV footage showed some members bringing stools and wires that were used for their hanging, even as police recovered 11 diaries that were maintained over a period of 11 years.

The content of the diaries matched the way the alleged suicides happened, the police said. The diaries had instructions such as “keep water in a cup. When it will change colour, you will be saved”. The family was not expecting to die and thought that “the earth will shake” and “there will be thunder in the sky”, following which they will be saved.

Police said that the fact that there were 11 diaries maintained over a period of eleven years is a coincidence and it is not in any way related to the deaths of the 11 family members. The footage of a camera installed outside a house opposite the residence of the family showed that the elder daughter-in-law of the house, Savita, along with her daughter, Neetu, could be seen bringing five stools that were later used for the members to be hanged.

Neetu could be seen in the footage carrying stools accompanied by her mother. Around 10.15 pm, Dhruv and Shivam, the youngest members of the house, were seen taking electrical wires from the plywood shop. These wires were used by the 10 members of the family for hanging.

Ten of the 11 members of the Bhatia family were found hanging from an iron-mesh in the ceiling on Sunday, while the body of 77-year-old Narayan Devi, the head of the family, was lying on the floor in another room of the house.

Devi’s daughter Pratibha (57), her two sons Bhavnesh (50) and Lalit Bhatia (45) were also among the deceased. Bhavnesh’s wife Savita (48) and their three children – Meenu (23), Nidhi (25), and Dhruv, aged 15, too were found dead.

Lalit Bhatia’s wife Tina (42) and their 15-year-old son Shivam were also among those found dead. Pratibha’s daughter Priyanka (33), who was engaged last month and would have married by the end of this year, was also found hanging.