Burari deaths: We have never seen anything like this, say cops, locals

Sunday’s ‘multiple suicides’ at Sant Nagar in Burari was like no other the colony residents or local police had ever seen. On Sunday morning, most locals woke up to news reports on television about a family of 11 who had committed suicide inside their house in Burari.

Two weeks ago, four people had been killed in a gang war on a street right opposite the Burari house where Sunday’s ‘suicides’ took place. The area had shot into limelight then too.

On Sunday, police had to arrange five hearses to move the 11 bodies from the Sant Nagar house to the mortuary. Merely moving the hearses to remove the bodies was a task, as curious onlookers flooded the neighbourhood.

On Sunday, it took the police at least six hours to bring all the bodies down, put them in hearses and move them to the mortuary.

The deaths drew hundreds of onlookers and dozens of journalists, leaving the police with their hands full controlling the crowd and keeping the main road nearby free from traffic jams. “At least 300 police personnel were deployed for maintaining law and order,” said the officer.

The incident saw the deployment of station house officers (SHOs) from 12 police stations apart from 22 inspectors and eight assistant commissioners of police. Usually one station house officer is sent to a crime spot. The spot also saw visits from officers of the crime branch and a bunch of top police officers, including a special commissioner of police and a joint commissioner of police.

A member of the forensic team said it was among the toughest tasks he had ever performed. “Never before I had to pick samples of so many dead people from one place,” said the forensic team member.

“Despite so many people dying, there was no one to shed tears for the victims at least for the first two-three hours after the deaths came to light. Only when the remaining family members began arriving from Panipat did we hear wails,” said Jitesh Rana, a local resident who was in the crowd.

For the residents of this neighbourhood in Sant Nagar, it was the second time in two weeks that they were in the news. In a street right across the house from where the bodies were recovered on Sunday, Delhi’s wanted gangster Jitender Gogi had left four people dead on June 18.

“I described the crime scene to journalists after the shooting then. Today, I was again describing the possible circumstances that could have led to a ‘mass suicide’. This neighbourhood is haunted and it is not a good feeling to see so many deaths so frequently,” said Kamlesh Singh, a local shopkeeper.

Another major crime to have rocked the Burari neighbourhood had taken place in May last year when six members of a family were murdered, allegedly by a family friend who wanted to take over their property.