India's Amityville Horror-The Burari Deaths
The Ghastly Discovery of 10 Members of a Family Found Hanging From the Ceiling Raises Questions - Was it Murder, Suicide ....or Something Else?
Location: Sant Nagar in Burari, North Delhi, India.
The Discovery of the Bodies
On July 1, 2018, Gurcharan Singh is on his daily morning walk routine. He heads to the local grocery shop to buy his morning milk, but finds the shop still not open. It was already past 7am, and the shop always opened at 6am. Singh knew the owner — Bhavnesh, a family friend and neighbor, who lived just around the corner. He called his number, but there was no response.
At 7:15 am, Singh arrives at the house to find the front door unlocked. He opens it and walks in to proceed to the first floor.
What he see’s next could be described as the scene of a horror movie :
10 bodies hanging from the ceiling of the house, blindfolded, hands tied behind their back, and their mouths taped.
A terrified Singh ran outside and called the police.
The Police Arrive at a Grisly Scene
Rajeev Tomar, the first head constable to enter the house said he had never seen anything like this in his 17-year long career.
“It was shocking. All I saw were bodies hanging like branches of a tree,” he said.
The deaths were suspected to be a case of murder.
Who were the deceased 11?
All the 11 dead belonged to one family: the Chundawat family of Burari. The family comprised of two men, six women, and two teens.
The 10 bodies found hanging on the first floor of the house in a circular formation were:
Bhavnesh Singh (50), his wife Savita (48) and their children Neetu (25), Maneka (23), Dhruv(15);
Lalit Singh (45, brother of Bhavesh), his wife Tina (42), and their son Shivam (15);
Pratibha (48, Sister of Bhavesh & Lalit) and her daughter Priyanka (33)
The mother of Bhavesh and Lalit, 77-year-old Narayani Devi, was found dead on the floor in another room, the only one not found hanging.
The Chundawat family had migrated to Delhi from Rajasthan in the 90s.
It owned a grocery store and a plywood shop in the same locality.
Who Murdered Them?
The police were baffled. Retribution was suspected to be the prime reason — a member from the family had wronged someone so bad, they all had to pay for it by getting killed in this fashion.
The police scrutinized all aspects of the life of every member: business rivalry, jealous boyfriend, property disputes, an extra-marital affair gone wrong, etc., no motive was spared. But nothing suspicious was discovered that hinted towards a murder.
The police then make a shocking discovery in the diaries they found at the house.
Lalit
The diaries were owned and written by Lalit, the man who emerged to be the central character of this macabre tragedy.
A very complex figure, he was said to be a no-nonsense man but at the same time someone who was very funny and joked a lot.
Lalit was a student of medicine, but an illness forced him to drop out of college. He found employment at a plywood shop in Delhi, where he worked from the mid-90s till 2008.
A major incident at work in 2004, where he got trapped in a fire, made him lose his voice completely. It’s unknown whether he simply stopped speaking after that because of psychological trauma or whether he suffered damage to his vocal cords.
The Death of Lalit’s Father and the Beginning of His Psychosis
Lalit’s father, Bhopal Singh, was a much-loved man in the locality. Fondly known as “Daddy”, he was always there to lend a helping hand and be there for you in times of trouble. Everyone he knew spoke very highly of him. Bhopal Singh, his wife Narayani Devi, and a very young Lalit were the first ones to arrive in Delhi from Haryana via Rajasthan.
Bhopal Singh died suddenly in 2006 from respiratory illness.
The death of Lalit’s father had a very profound effect on him.
The devastated family organized a 10-day prayer for the father’s soul.
During the prayer, Lalit shocked everyone when he started chanting OM loudly. The family members believed that Lalit’s father was speaking through him.
It was a kind of a miracle. The man who had not uttered a word in 3 years was suddenly speaking again. Lalit attributed the miracle to his dead father. He said his father appeared in his dream and told him to perform the prayer, due to which he regained his voice.
The entire family now started seeing Lalit in a new light. He had become a spiritual medium, channeling messages by “Daddy” from another world to them.
Lalit became highly spiritual after this incident, dwelving deeper into the world of the mystical and occult.
What Did Lalit’s Diaries Contain?
Lalit started scribbling notes in a diary in 2007, a few months after the death of his father..
The notes were strict orders for the entire Chundawat family -from the youngest to oldest — dictated by none other than Lalit’s dead father. The notes laid out the daily routine of the family to be followed strictly for the general and financial well-being of the family.
The family stopped consuming non-vegetarian food, and both brothers( Lalit and Bhavesh) who drank alcohol adopted an alcohol-free lifestyle.
The family saw their business expand and wealth increase which reinforced their belief in Lalit being a channeler of messages from his dead father. “Daddy” was guiding them from another world, they believed.
The entire Chundawat family followed and supported all the rituals Lalit performed as guided by his dead father for the prosperity of the entire family.
By 2018, Lalit had filled 11 diaries with notes from his father.
The Final Ritual — Banyan Tree Worship(Badh Tapasya)
The ritual involved hanging like the branches of a banyan tree in a circular formation to attain salvation. Lalit’s diary laid out all the steps involved in performing the ritual.
CCTV footage from outside the house, of the night before, showed Neetu(25) and her mother Savita(48) bringing five stools inside their home.
At 10:15 pm, Dhruv(15) and Shivam(15) were seen carrying electrical wires from Lalit’s plywood shop into the Chundawat house. These were the wires they used for hanging themselves.
No person left or entered the house after that till the following morning at 7:15.
Chunnis* were tied in special knots(as described in the diary) to the railings on the iron grid installed on the ceiling of the first floor. The other end of the chunnis were suspended below and attached to the electrical wires procured from Lalit’s shop.
Lalit and his wife Tina blindfolded the family members, tied their legs, plugged their ears with cotton, and taped their mouths. All of them had their faces wrapped with cloth taken from a single bedsheet.
A noose was created of the wires and put around the neck of each family member.
The 10 members stood on the 5 stools, each sharing two.
Narayani Devi(77) was strangled in another room by Lalit. He joined the 10 others, and Tina put the noose around his neck.
Tina was the only one who did not have her hands tied behind her back. She got up on the stool and put the noose around her neck.
At some point, they flicked the stools over to suspend their bodies from the electrical wires attached to the chunnis.
“The earth will shake, and the sky will open up, but don’t worry, chant the mantra louder, I will come to save you and the others.” — Note from Lalit’s diary, as dictated by his dead father.
The notes also said, “everyone will tie their hands themselves, but when the ritual is over, everyone will help each other untie their hands.”
They were expecting to be saved by “Daddy”, not die by hanging.
*A Chunni is a scarf like clothing worn by women in India.
Unintended Mass Suicide
The police ruled the Burari deaths to be a case of “unintended mass suicide”. Evidence indicated Bhavesh tried to free himself in the final moments of his death. His one hand was free, tape partially removed and his feet were touching the ground.They concluded the deaths were the result of a mass psychotic disorder that began with Lalit’s hallucinations, who believed he was receiving messages from his dead father. The entire Chundawat family participated in the ritual with their consent, and not one of them tried to object to the ritual or disobey Lalit. They believed Lalit that they would not die, and “Daddy” would save them.
The family also visited visited many occult practitioners, indicating they all suffered from a mass psychotic disorder under the influence of Lalit.
The Chundawat Family Dog
The Chundawat family owned a dog named Tommy, who was the only surviving member from that night. The police put him in a dog shelter, where he initially displayed symptoms of depression and refused to eat or drink. But his condition improved soon, and he was back to normal-eating, drinking, and playing. Suddenly on July 23, 2018, Tommy died of heart failure. He was six years old.
The Chundawat Family House Today
The Chundawat family house gained notoriety similar to that of the Amityville House in America. Stories floated of how the house is haunted with the spirits of the 11 family members. People still ask questions about the house when they pass through the area. “It’s that house, isn’t it ?” they point their finger.
The Chundawat family had another member: Dinesh Chundawat, the elder brother of Lalit and Bhavesh, who did not live with the rest of the family in Delhi. He refuses to believe his family died from an occult ritual gone wrong. Dinesh has been trying to sell the Chundawat house for 2 years, but the haunted house tag makes it hard to get a good price.
The house was occupied by two employees of Lalit who worked at his plywood shop, Ahmed and Ali(two brothers), for almost two years while Dinesh tried to sell it. Ahmed and Ali spoke about being spooked in the house, and completely avoiding the first floor for a few months. They slept on the terrace, too afraid to sleep in the house. Eventually, their fears disappeared, and living in the house became a normal activity.
In December 2019, unable to sell the Delhi house of horror, Dinesh Chundawat rented it out to a Dr. Mohan Kashyap, who now runs a pathological lab on the ground floor, and lives on the first floor - the same floor where 3 years ago, the ghastly scene of 10 bodies hanging from the ceiling shook the entire nation.
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All images have been used in accordance with the fair use principle. Most are from the Facebook account of Priyanka Bhatia (one of the deceased). I have not posted pictures of the hanging bodies.
Copyright Sumit Kumar - All Rights Reserved
No part of this article can used without the authors permission.
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