Eleven dead bodies found in the Bhatia House of Burari, north Delhi have shocked the whole country. While the case was registered over mass death by strangulation, the police was suspecting a major occult angle to the incident. It is hard to believe that even in this day and age, a family could take such a drastic step under the influence of a mystical superstition.
Sadly, it seems, a family of 11 has became a victim of superstition. The deceased included seven women, two men and two minors.
Despite neighbours and family members refusing to believe that Bhatia family did it because of mystical or spiritual reasons. Police found a handwritten diary from the Bhatia house that spoke about ‘way to heaven’ and ‘salvation’. What’s also disturbing is that there were notes of instructions found in their home that mentioned clear instructions on how to perform the act. It specifically mentioned the time of the hanging.
The handwritten note found by the police also said that the eyes of the 11 members must be donated.
As per the sources, the bodies of the family will be cremated today, around 5 pm.
Image Source: Indiatimes
The neighbours and police also found 11 plastic pipes protruding out of the wall of the house, which spooked them as the deceased members are also 11. Some of the pipes were facing front but some were facing downward, which is odd because none of the pipes was attached to a water inlet or outlet.
Not just the pipe, the number of rods on the entrance gate of the house was also 11.
Image Source: Hindustan Times
Jatin Balyan, a passerby who stopped to take a look, “It is possible that the 11 pipes were meant to allow the souls of the 11 occupants to escape from the house.” We are surprised that a well-educated individual is focusing more on superstitious practice instead of denouncing the person that may have roped a family into a deadly practice. That’s exactly how superstitions, fake or true, spread and negatively influence more and more people in the name of religion, especially, in our country.
Sukesh Tyagi, a resident of Sant Nagar Burari guessed, “They may have been toilet pipes, one for each member.”
As per Ahmed Ali, a carpenter who worked with the Bhatia family, the pipes and the iron gate were put up in the last three or four months. He explained, “The house was undergoing construction and renovation. When I asked the family about the pipes, the family said they would serve as ventilation.”
He further added, “The family knew that they couldn’t open a window at that end, so they decided to leave some scope for the air to pass through the pipes. When I asked them about it, they said the pipes would be removed later.”
But he couldn’t really explain the logic behind the specific number of 11 pipes. “I remember that at least four of those pipes were not open. I don’t know the reason behind the decision to install 11 pipes,” Ali said.
Devesh Malik, a neighbour and a family friend said, “I had asked Lalit Bhatia about the pipes. He told me that it would serve as ventilation to allow the foul smell from his stock of plywood to escape the room. But he did not store any plywood on the upper floor of his house. He said the pipes would act as an exhaust, but now the count sounds spooky.”
Some locals are suggesting a hawan. Shobhit Tyagi, a local resident said, “Ye bhutiya colony lag rahi hai (This appears to be a ghostly neighbourhood).” Locals are more interested in the ghosts which are nowhere in the picture than the family who became a victim of deadly superstition.
An investigator also revealed that the handwritten notes recovered from the house on Sunday are being scanned for a mention of the 11 pipes.
As police are still investigating, we are not sure where this mass suicide story will take us. But all we can say is that superstitions take us nowhere. In the times when we need to protect our families, we can’t even think of something as bizarre as this. Baseless superstitions that can destroy an entire family is not worthy of even a thought.
Be it a story about monkey-man attacking people or a braid-stealer killing women, all of these urban legends spread around and do no good.
Stay tuned for more updates and opinions.