JAIPUR: Five members of a family, including three children, drop dead after consuming poison to end their lives and meet Lord Shiva in heaven.

The incident happened on Monday night in Sawai Modhopur’s Gangapur city when an eight-member family, including three children aged between 10 and 16 years, consumed poison suspected to be cyanide. Three of the family were struggling for their lives in two hospitals here.

Police were shocked to find a video clip of the entire incident on a personal camera. In the clip, the family members, including the children were making merry and talked about failing to see Lord Shiva in his physical form while still alive. To please their diety, they bathed an idol of Lord Shiva in blood and used blood-laced objects in a fire ritual (havan) to perform ‘ahuti’. The family members then consumed poison-laced sweets (laddus) to meet their god after death.

Sawai Madhopur SP Param Jyoti told TOI that the incident happened in the house of 45-year-old Kanchan Singh at Nasia Colony in Gangapur City. Singh, a firm believer in superstition and a self-proclaimed devotee of Lord Shiva, had organized the havan, so that his family could meet Lord Shiva in his physical form.

Singh’s family members who took part in the ritual are his wife Neelam (40), mother Bhagwati Devi, daughter Dreamy (16), son Pradhuman (11), his younger brother Deep Singh (40), Deep Singh’s son Love Singh (10) and Kanchan’s nice Rashmi (21). Love Singh, Bhagwati Devi and Rashmi, who survived the ordeal, were fighting for their lives.

Deep Singh had come to Gangapur City from Delhi where he worked at an MNC specifically to take part in the havan. Police said Rashmi who is BA student at Delhi University and her brother Sandeep had also come for the same purpose; however, Sandeep left for Delhi a few hours before the havan as he did not believe much in such rituals.

Kanchan Singh, who worked as a freelance photographer , was the key behind the mass suicide. A senior police officer said Kanchan Singh believed in superstitions.

“In the video, Kanchan Singh and other family members have been filmed laughing together. Kanchan Singh said in the video that they have bathed the Lord Shiva idol 3100 times with human blood over the past five years. They used an injection to get the blood out of their body and were seen on the video using it to perform ahuti,” the officer said.

The video showed the family members saying Rashmi was to get married on April 12; however, it would be organised in heaven after death.

Even after the havan when Lord Shiva did not appear before the family, Kanchan Singh got some substance from another room in the house, stuffed them in the sweets and distributed them among the family members, including the children.

“Five of them died after consuming the sweet, while Rashmi called up police and neighbours. Bhagwati Devi and Rashmi were undergoing treatment at SMS Hospital in Jaipur, while Love Singh was admitted in Jaipur’s JK Lone Hospital,” the officer added.

Superstition led to family’s mass suicide

Kanchan Singh, a freelance photographer, who led his family to consume poison at their house in Sawai Madhopur’s Gangapur City on Monday night was superstitious to the extent that he believed Lord Shiva spoke to him on several occasions. He believed that the God had shown his 16-year-old daughter the question papers of Class X examination before she appeared in the exam this year. Police are trying to ascertain how Singh could influence his entire family, including children, to such an extent that he was able to convince them that they would get to meet Lord Shiva after death.

The shocked neighbours have told police that the family was quite secretive. They rarely allowed any neighbour to enter their house. Kanchan Singh used to extract blood from his body and offer it on a picture or an idol of Lord Shiva. Police said as per the video prepared to film the suicide committed by the family, he had offered his blood 3100 times over the past five years.

Police said the family used syringes to extract blood. While performing the havan, the family offered 11 kinds of eatables to Lord Shiva, including pizza and sandwich, to invoked him so that he appears before them.

In the video, Kanchan was seen asking each member of the family why he or she wanted to die. They responded that they wanted to see Lord Shiva. “After all the eight family members consumed poison, Kanchan Singh’s niece Rashmi gained consciousness around 2.30am on Tuesday. She started vomiting. She found everybody lying on the floor around her and informed the police,” a police officer said.