Meerut: Charred remains of wooden blocks, faint odour of smoke laden with ashes, a dash of vermilion and some other ritual offerings left after ‘Hawan’ were some of things which bind together Delhi’s recent Burari deaths with that of five “suicides” in Meerut city two years ago.Several residents of Meerut’s posh TP Nagar area were jolted out of their sleeps by screams and wailings on the morning of October 7, 2016, when five members of well-known Arora family were found dead.Vineet Arora (40), his wife Pooja Arora (38) their son Abhishek Arora (15) and Vineet’s mother Krishan Arora (65) were found hanging at their house in Rahgukul Vihar colony.Their wrists were also slit with some sharp-edged weapon.In yet another similarity with the Burari incident, the eldest member of the family and Vineet’s father Shree Mohan Arora was found dead in a separate room of the house.According to police, Vineet had left behind a hand-written note, where he had mentioned that they were taking their lives due to huge debts of over Rs 1.75 crore. Two years on, police are yet to make a progress in the case. “We are yet to get report on forensic examination of the handwriting,” said superintendent of police (SP) Ranvijay Singh.However, police investigation revealed that the private finance companies and banks had never flagged Aroras.“On the face of it, it looks like they killed themselves due to the debt. But, banks said that they never defaulted on loan payment and had a lot of immovable asset. Their business was also doing fine,” a source said.When contacted, several residents of the locality told TOI that the Arora family’s suicide had an eerie similarity with that of Burari deaths. “The first thing that came to my mind after I heard about the Burari incident was the suicides of the Aroras,” said Anshuman Jain, a neighbour of Aroras.Mystery still shrouds the investigation as an extinguished ‘Hawan’ and ingredients for ritual offerings were recovered from the house, fueling theories of “cult practices” before the extreme step.The detailed suicide note which ran into four pages directed the kin to perform the rituals according to Hindu tradition. It had also mentioned steps to be taken to cremate their bodies.

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