Police found all doors, windows and ventilators packed with a foil-like substance
A woman in her 50s and her two daughters turned their south Delhi flat into a chamber of poisonous gas and suffocated to death in a shocking case of triple suicide, Delhi Police have found.
Suicide notes recovered from the flat in the posh Vasant Vihar neighbourhood have revealed their spine-chilling plan.
Police found all doors, windows and ventilators packed with a foil-like substance, apparently to ensure smoke does not escape the room and no one can see within. The probe has revealed all of this material was ordered online.
Police found that the cooking gas cylinder's knob was turned on and an angithi (coal fire) was left burning. The coal fire and no ventilation must have led to the build-up of poisonous carbon monoxide in the room, killing the three.
When police entered the flat, they found the three bodies in one bedroom, the coal fire burning beside them.
In one of the suicide notes, there were clear instructions to anyone who enters the flat that they should not light a match as that could spark a fire.
"Too much deadly gas... carbon monoxide inside. It's flammable. Please ventilate the room by opening the window and opening the fan. Do not light match, candle or anything!! Be careful while removing the curtain because room is full of hazardous gas. Do not inhale," the chilling suicide note in English read.
The woman has been identified as Manju Srivastava and her daughters Anshika and Anku.
The house help and neighbours have told police that the woman's husband, Umesh Chandra Srivastava, died of Covid last year and the family had been upset since then. The woman was also unwell and had been confined to the bed of late, police have learnt.
The president of the residential society, M David, told news agency ANI that the family turned the house into a "smoke chamber".
Police said further investigation into the matter is on.