Burari deaths: police record statements after ruling out murder, abetment to suicide

Police also corroborating evidence to close the case; autopsy report awaited

July 06, 2018 01:35 am | Updated 12:22 pm IST - NEW DELHI

 Entrance of the house-cum-shop in Burari where 11 members of a family were found dead on Sunday.

Entrance of the house-cum-shop in Burari where 11 members of a family were found dead on Sunday.

After ruling out murder and abetment to suicide in the Burari death case, the police are corroborating evidence and recording statements to close the case, said a police officer on Thursday. Eleven members of a family were found dead in Burari on Sunday.

Doctors said the autopsy report will be handed over to the police by Saturday. The viscera has been sent for forensic examination. “The preliminary autopsy report had found that the deaths are due to hanging. No poisoning was detected,” said a police officer.

“Prima facie we treated it as a murder case. Later, we thought there might be some outsider who had influenced or abetted the family members to perform the puja that resulted in the deaths. However, no external influence was found. After going through notes recovered from the house and the CCTV footage which showed family members arranging stools and ordering food for the puja, it was established that Lalit was the only person who made all the other family members perform the puja. The others volunteered,” said DCP (Crime) Joy Tirkey.

“The final report of the case will be prepared with logical conclusion. It was an accidental death because the recovered notes did not mention about any suicide or death. They were talking about ‘ mukti ’ [freedom] for their father’s soul, who died in 2007. Lalit had been writing notes since July 8, 2007,” Mr. Tirkey said.

‘Shared psychosis’

A senior police officer said that they discussed the case with a doctor at VIMHANS, who said that it was a case of “shared psychosis” in which one person’s delusional beliefs are transmitted to others.

A team was sent to Lalit’s in-laws’ house in Udaipur on Thursday. Initially they denied to speak up, but later they said that Lalit’s wife Tina had told them that the soul of her father-in-law had entered into her husband’s body.

The family celebrated Priyanka’s engagement on June 17. There were around 13 relatives who came from outside and stayed in the house from June 15 to 23.

“We will approach all the relatives, who stayed in the house during the period to find out if they had noticed something unusual in the house. After the relatives left the house on June 23, the seven-day puja began that concluded on June 30,” said Mr. Tirkey.

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