Background
The Burari deaths came to light on the morning of 1 July 2018, when eleven members of the Chandawat family were found dead in their home in the Burari neighbourhood of Delhi, India. The family had lived for about two decades in a three-storey house after moving from Tohana in Haryana. The dead ranged in age from 15 to 80.
The news drew intense attention in India and in the international press from the moment it broke.
Police said the layout and conduct inside the house matched the instructions in the diaries in detail.
What happened
Early in the morning a neighbour noticed that something was wrong and the police were called. Ten of the eleven were found in the courtyard, while the 80-year-old grandmother was found in another room. There were no signs of forced entry or a struggle. The family dog was the only survivor.
Police found eleven diaries and notebooks kept over many years. They described a series of rituals that the family carried out while believing they were following instructions from the spirit of the late father. The close match between the notes and the way the scene was found shaped the direction of the investigation.
Investigation
Because of public pressure and claims by relatives, police first opened a murder case. The autopsies found no sign of a struggle. The Delhi Police crime branch and psychologists concluded the deaths were a ritual mass suicide driven by "shared psychotic disorder", under the strong influence of the family's central figure, the son Lalit. The prevailing reading was that the family did not expect to die, and that the ritual was framed as a form of spiritual passage. Some relatives disputed this and maintain it was murder.
No one was prosecuted, and the deaths were assessed as the result of a shared decision.
Legacy
The case reopened debate in India about superstition, pressure within families and mental health. In 2021 Netflix released the three-part documentary "House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths". Experts point to the importance of access to mental-health services and early recognition in similar situations.
Later dramatisations of the case followed the documentary, keeping public attention on it.