The Banyan Tree Ritual: The Chilling Mystery of the Burari Deaths

The House of Secrets: The Chundawat Family’s Ritual to Nowhere

On the morning of July 1, 2018, the Burari neighborhood in North Delhi didn't wake up to its usual rhythm. The Chundawat family, known for their kindness and their thriving grocery shop, hadn't opened their doors. By 7:30 AM, neighbors grew concerned. The shop, which was a cornerstone of the community, was never late.
When a neighbor finally climbed the stairs to their home to check on them, he found the front door unlocked. He stepped inside and was met with a sight so horrifying it would traumatize the nation and later become the subject of the chilling Netflix docuseries, "House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths."

A Forest of Souls

Inside the hallway, ten members of the family—men, women, and teenagers—were hanging from a circular iron grill in the ceiling. They were arranged in a formation that mimicked the roots of a Banyan tree. Their eyes were blindfolded with surgical cloth, their ears and mouths stuffed with cotton, and their hands tied behind their backs.
The eleventh member, the family’s matriarch, was found strangled near a bed in the adjacent room.
There was no sign of a struggle. No jewelry was missing. No valuables were stolen. In fact, the family had just celebrated a joyful engagement a week prior. To the police, it looked like a mass suicide, but the precision and ritualistic nature of the scene pointed to something far more sinister: a deep-seated psychological delusion.

The Silent Architect: Lalit Chundawat

The investigation took a dark turn when police discovered 11 diaries kept in the family’s prayer area. These notebooks contained meticulous instructions dating back to 2007, the year the family’s patriarch, Bhopal Singh, passed away.
The diaries revealed that Lalit, the youngest son, had convinced the family that he was communicating with the soul of his late father. Lalit was a man of trauma; years earlier, he had lost his voice after a near-fatal attack. However, shortly after his father’s death, he "miraculously" regained his speech during a prayer session. This convinced the family that Lalit was a medium for the divine.
For over a decade, every single decision—from financial investments to what they ate—was dictated by the "instructions" Lalit received from his dead father’s spirit.

The "Banyan Tree" Ritual

The final entries in the diaries detailed a ceremony called "Badh Tapasya" (The Banyan Tree Rite). Lalit convinced his family that by performing this ritual, they would thank the spirits and attain greatness. He assured them that they would not die; rather, at the very last second, the spirit of the grandfather would enter the room and save them.
CCTV footage from the night before showed the family—including the children—calmly carrying stools and wires into the house. They weren't preparing for death; they were preparing for a miracle. They even left the front door open, believing the grandfather’s spirit needed a way to enter and "rescue" them once the ritual was complete.

The Aftermath

The Burari case remains one of the most studied instances of shared psychotic disorder (Folie à deux). It serves as a haunting reminder of how collective trauma, when left untreated, can spiral into a lethal cult-like devotion within a single household.
The Chundawats were not "crazy" in the traditional sense—they were a successful, educated, and well-liked family. Yet, their absolute surrender of logic to a charismatic but delusional leader led to the extinction of three generations in a single night.

What do you think?
Was this a case of pure psychological manipulation, or do you believe there was a darker, supernatural element at play?

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