Police outside the house in Bhajanpura on Wednesday. Neighbours had complained of a foul smell. (Express Photo by Gajendra Yadav)

Decomposing bodies of five people, including three children, were found inside a two-room house in North East Delhi’s Bhajanpura Wednesday morning. Delhi Police has registered a case under IPC section 302 (murder).

“The bodies were found in a putrefying state and prima facie it appears that the victims died around five-six days ago,” DCP (North East) Ved Prakash Surya said, adding that police are still looking for clarity on the cause of death.

The victims have been identified as e-rickshaw driver Shambhu Chaudhary (43), his wife Sunita (37), and their children Shivam (17), Sachin (14) and Komal (12). The five had moved to Bhajanpura around six months ago.

“A PCR call about foul smell coming from a house was received at 11.16 am. When we reached, the bodies of the parents were found in one room, and the children in another room,” said Surya.

A senior police officer said the cause of death can be ascertained only after the post-mortem, as the “bodies are in such a bad shape that it was hard to even figure out the nature of injuries. They were rotting and bloated beyond recognition”.

Delhi Police is probing whether it is a case of murder or murder-suicide. “There was no ransacking, and we are trying to access CCTV footage from the area,” said Surya. Police has requested GTB Hospital to constitute a board of doctors to do the post-mortem Thursday.

Narender Bansal, a property dealer whose office is opposite the house where the bodies were found, told The Indian Express, “Their main gate was locked for six days at least, so we thought the family was away.” He said the neighbours had been complaining of a foul smell in the area since Tuesday, but “everyone assumed it was a dead animal or the open drains”. Bansal said, “On Wednesday morning, an MCD official came and said the smell was coming from the house. We called the owner of the house, who said we should dial 100. It was then that we realised that Chaudhary and his family were dead.”

Chaudhary had moved to Delhi at least 20 years ago from Supaul in Bihar. He used to sell juice until a year ago, and then started driving an e-rickshaw. Chaudhary’s uncle, Shankar Jaiswal, who lives nearby, said, “I had not seen him for the last 10 days, nor had we spoken. The gate was locked, so I thought they were away. The family had no financial difficulties. Shambhu never spoke about any enemies either.”