Burari deaths not suicide but accident, reveals psychological autopsy report

New Delhi: The sensational Burari mass suicide case, that had come to light in July this year, shook the national capital. 11 members of a family were found dead at their home in North Delhi's Burari. 

In the latest development in the case, the psychological autopsy report of the members said that they did not commit suicide. The incident was rather an 'accident that occurred during a ritual', revealed the report.

The Delhi Police had in July written to the Central Bureau of Investigation to conduct the psychological autopsy. It received the report on Wednesday evening.

"On the basis of psychological autopsy study on the deceased, the incident was not a suicide but an accident that occurred during the course of performing a ritual. None of the deceased had an intention to put an end to his/her life," the report read.

During the course of the psychological autopsy, the CBI's Central Forensic Science Laboratory analysed the notes in registers found in the house and statements of friends and members of the Chundawat family recorded by police.

The CFSL also interviewed the eldest son of the family matriarch Dinesh Singh Chundawat and his sister Sujata Nagpal and their families. 

Psychological autopsy attempts to study a person's mental state by analysing medical records, interviewing friends and family and conducting research into their state of mind prior to death, a senior police officer said.

The officer said the CBI, who were handed over the diaries the family had written over a span of 11 years which talked about attaining God, concurred with the police investigation.

According to sources, police, during the investigation, had found that one of the members, Lalit Chundawat, had visitations from his dead father and would dictate certain things to his family members.

He had driven the family to perform the rituals in which they apparently tied their feet and hands and covered their faces with pieces of cloth. 

Ten of the 11 members of the ill-fated family were found hanging from an iron-mesh of the ceiling on July 1, while the body of 77-year-old family matriarch Narayan Devi was lying on the floor in another room of the house. Her daughter Pratibha (57) and her two sons Bhavnesh (50) and Lalit (45) were among the deceased.

Bhavnesh's wife Savita (48) and their three children - Maneka (23), Neetu (25), and Dhirendra (15) were also found dead.

The others who were found hanging were Lalit's wife Tina (42), their 15-year-old son Dushyant and Pratibha's daughter Priyanka, who was engaged last month and was supposed to get married by the year-end.

Police had also found 11 diaries which had "psychological musings" and things about attaining "road to God".

(With inputs from PTI)