RAIPUR: In a chilling reminder of Delhi’s Burari deaths, two members of a family in Sakti district of Chhattisgarh were found dead while four remained in a critical condition in hospital after a weeklong ‘tantric ritual‘ at home.
Neighbours, who had been hearing the family chant incessantly, came around to check when they heard the voices grow fainter.They were shocked to see two brothers lying dead on the floor and others in varying stages of unconsciousness.
All six were taken to hospital where Vikram, 21, and Vicky, 19, were declared dead. Their mother Pirit Bai, 70, sisters Chandrika, 27, and Amrica, 25, and brother Visha, 18, remained in hospital in a critical condition. None of them have regained consciousness.
The two sisters mumbled for a few seconds that “something black” had entered their house and into their bodies and “possessed them”. Sakti SP Ankita Sharma told TOI that investigators cannot rely on what the patients are saying as they are not fully conscious.
Going by autopsy report, which found traces of poison, police are treating it as murder. It’s not clear if the victims took the poison on their own or were forced to consume it.
SP Sharma said the family were on a prolonged fast and were performing a ritual inside their house in Baradwar region of Tanduldih (200km from Raipur). Police have learnt the family had been fasting for seven days and none of them had stepped out of home. Neighbours heard them chanting and ‘screaming’ intermittently.
On Friday, the neighbours realised that the chants from the house sounded very faint. Some of them peeped in and witnessed four members of the family sitting around two bodies, worshipping the photograph of a godman.
Neighbours alerted police and a team sped to the spot. The other family members seemed to be in a trance and were mumbling continuously, said police. One by one, they fell unconscious even as they were being put in ambulances. The godman hails from Ujjain in MP, said the SP.