As Vasanth Kunj in Delhi reels from the shock of the death of a man and his four daughters, a CCTV footage have emerged showing the 46-year-old man walking with a blue polythene bag in his hands. The visuals are said to be from Tuesday, the same date neighbours claim they last saw the family.
Police believe the bag contained a box of sweets. Their bodies were found inside their rented apartment in a three-storey building on Friday.
The deceased have been identified as Heeralal Sharma and his daughters Neetu (26), Nikki (24), Neeru (23) and Nidhi (20). Sharma was a carpenter who worked at the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre in Vasant Kunj for almost 28 years before quitting abruptly in January. Though his daughters were graduates, two of them had disabilities.
Though the evidence hints at a suicide pact, the CCTV visuals showing the man walking with a box of sweets around 7 pm have raised suspicions that he may have laced the sweets with poison before feeding it to his family.
New Delhi: In Rangpuri village, a carpenter, committed suicide with his four specially abled daughters by consuming poison. Neighbors alerted the police due to a foul smell. Investigation is ongoing. pic.twitter.com/8IjUOjH40n
— IANS (@ians_india) September 28, 2024
The police recovered a box of sweets, a pesticide suspected to be Celphos and another liquid resembling a fruit juice. Celphos is an insecticide and a fumigant for controlling insects, pests, and rodents in granaries.
Their bodies did not bear any other injuries. Police believe both the juice and sweets may have been laced with poison. They are also probing whether it was a suicide pact or a murder-suicide.
The family mostly kept to themselves, especially after the death of the man's wife in August due to cancer. Neighbours however recollected seeing them on Tuesday.
It was the building's caretaker Mohan Singh who first detected the foul smell emanating from Sharma's balcony. "My husband cleans the lobby area every day. After neighbours complained of the smell, he went and knocked on Heeralal’s door on Friday. But there was no response," Singh's wife told The Indian Express.
The caretaker alerted the Fire and Safety officials and police who broke into their apartment. While Sharma's body was found in one room, the bodies of his daughters were seen in the other.
The neighbours added that Sharma and his daughters were reclusive and did not let anyone inside their apartment, especially after his wife's death. While one of the daughters was visually challenged, the other had mobility issues and was frequently in the hospital.
Another neighbour also reported hearing noise from the flat before the day the bodies were found. She reported hearing shouting and commotion and believes the daughters were fighting.
