Tension was palpable in Northeast Delhi’s Bhajanpura area on Wednesday morning after five members of a family were found dead under mysterious circumstances inside their house. Police said no suicide note was recovered from the house.
The deceased have been identified as Shambhu Chaudhary (43), his wife Sunita (37), their daughter Komal (12), their sons Sachin (14) and Shivam (17). Police said that Shambu used to drive e-rickshaw in the locality of Bhajanpura.
According to Ved Prakash Surya, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Northeast district, a police control room (PCR) call was received at around 11:16 pm on Wednesday from neighbour who told police about a nauseous smell emanating from a house in street number-10 of Bhajanpura.
“Acting on the call, Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) was dispatched for the spot. The police broke the door of the house and found five decomposed dead bodies in the house. The highly-decomposed bodies have been sent for the post mortem examination,” said the DCP.
“The exact reason for the death will be ascertained after the visit and examination by Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) team or after the post mortem report comes as the bodies are highly decomposed,” said the DCP.
“Police teams are trying to recover the mobile phone used by Shambhu, who was the only one in the family using it. Police have not recovered any weapon from the house. The house was also not ransacked. Police teams are also investigating the matter and are going to file a case under section 302 (murder) as the matter is very sensitive,” said the DCP.
“The family had been residing at the house as tenant for the last five months. Shambhu was permanent resident of district Supaul in Bihar,” the DCP added.
However, the relatives of Shambu suspected that it is a murder not suicide. Roshan Chaudhary (20), the brother of Shambhu, said he was in Bihar and came to Delhi this morning only.
“I had gone to Bihar and returned Delhi today. I spoke to Shambhu around 10 to 12 days ago. He used to run e-rickshaw and the relation between him and his wife was good. He had three children who used to study in a government school in Yamuna Vihar,” said Roshan.
Dinanath Chaudhary, the cousin of Shambhu, said that he heard about the incident from neighbours.
“I got the information from the nearby people regarding the bodies. I went inside the flat along with forensic science team. There was no issue in the family. It cannot be a suicide. It is a murder case,” he said.
“I went to the school where his kids used to study and found that they last went to the school on February 3,” said Dinanath.
Srikant Sharma, a neighbour, said that he noticed foul play and wanted to go inside but the main gate was locked from outside.
“The foul smell was coming from the house. Some people were thinking that the smell was coming from the sewer but I was sure that something was wrong. I wanted to go inside but the gate was locked. When police reached here, they broke open the door and later found the five decomposed bodies,” Sharma said.
