A 30-year-old woman and her four children were found dead at their house in Shahdara’s Seemapuri on Wednesday, the police said.
DCP (Shahdara) R. Sathiyasundaram said that a PCR call was received around 1.30 p.m. regarding four to five people lying unconscious in a room on the fifth floor of a house in Old Seemapuri. “When the police reached the spot, they found the woman and three of her children dead,” the officer said, adding that the fourth child was rushed to the hospital by his father but was declared dead.
Further inquiry revealed that one Mohit Kalia, 35, along with his wife Radha and four children - Komal, 11, Jitin, 8, Raushani, 4, and Arav, 3, - lived in the rented accommodation which is owned by one Amarpal Singh, 60, a resident of Shalimar Garden.
Preliminary enquiry suggests they all died of suffocation after inhaling smoke emanating from an ‘angithi’ kept in the room, the police said. The room was small and had no ventilation.
However, the exact cause of death will be known after the post-mortem report is received, the police said.
Mohit, the woman’s husband who works as a helper in private buses at Anand Vihar is being questioned.
The woman’s family suspects foul play in the incident. They questioned as to how Mohit managed to survive while the other members died despite sharing the same room. They said the couple used to fight frequently.
Radha’s brother, Bantu Kumar, said that Mohit told him that he woke up around 11 a.m. and saw that the other four were sleeping. There was no movement when he tried to wake them up. Later, he took his younger son to the hospital.
The family said they don’t believe Mohit’s narrative as the couple used to often fight. They said that Mohit and Radha married 12 years ago, however, three years later, they started quarrelling and she often left him.
About 12 days ago, after a quarrel between the two, Radha left her house and started living with her parents but Mohit came to take her back, along with his brother-in-law. Radha’s family said the couple and their children had shifted in the room two-three days ago and had been living in the same locality as Radha’s family.
