Mumbai: The otherwise peaceful village of Fene in Maharashtra was shaken up by a mass suicide on Saturday.
A 32-year-old woman and her three minor daughters were found hanging from the ceiling of their home, near Bhiwandi in Thane district.
The woman’s husband, power loom worker Lalji Banwarilala Bharti, had gone for work on night shift. On returning home in the morning, he discovered the bodies of wife Punita and daughters Nandini (12), Neha (7) and Anu (4) hanging from the ceiling.
The door was locked from inside, and Lalji peeped through a window to stumble upon the distressing scene.
A team from Bhiwandi police reached the spot and conducted a ‘panchnama’ on the spot. The bodies were sent to Indira Gandhi Smriti Upazila Hospital for postmortem.
Bhiwandi police are investigating the case after registering an accidental death report (ADR).
The cause of suicides is not yet clear, as the authorities await the postmortem report.
However, local people said that some handwritten notes had been recovered which pointed towards the family observing “some definite spiritual or mystical practices”.
Police suspect it could be a case of a ritual gone wrong.
The Thane mass suicide stokes memories of the 2018 Burari case, in which 11 family members were found dead at their home in north Delhi, blindfolded and with their mouths taped.
