The Chundawat family believed everything Lalit had been saying over the years
For the last 11 years, Lalit Chundawat had been hallucinating about getting instructions from his dead father and kept passing them on to his niece, who noted the messages down in diaries. On Sunday, 11 members of the Chundawat family were found hanging in their house in Delhi's Burari, mouths gagged, hands tied.
The police say 11 diaries found from the house, also being called Delhi's House of Horror, chronicle the messages Lalit Chundawat, 45, dictated over the years. The diaries, which listed how exactly the family members were to hang themselves, also had two entries that may have led the Chundawats to have complete faith in Lalit.
The family believed everything Lalit had been narrating over the years had been coming true, police sources said.
One entry, on June 19, 2015, reads: "
Maine jo kaha tha aaj woh hua hai, aage bhi aise hi karte rehna hai. Vishwaas bana ke rakhna hai (What I had predicted, it has come true today. We have to keep believing)"
The police believe this refers to the financial status of the family. They had a plywood business, and were able to expand from one shop to three. To achieve that, they had allegedly done exactly what Lalit had asked them to do.
Another factor that might have contributed to them believing Lalit completely, police sources say, is his niece Priyanka's engagement. For a long time the family had been trying to find Priyanka a match, but to little success. Diary entries reveal that Lalit instructed his family to follow certain rituals, following which Priyanka got engaged two weeks ago.
Sunday's suicide was meant to be a thanks offering to Lalit's dead father, police sources said, adding that the family members believed they would not die, but be saved at the last moment by Lalit's father's spirit.
The last sentence in the final diary, written on the day of the suicides, read: "...keep water in a cup, when it changes colour, I will appear and save you." After the "ritual", everyone was to untie each other.