In a first of its kind case reported from Jammu and Kashmir, six members of a family were found dead under mysterious circumstances on Wednesday morning. Among the dead are three women. The bodies were recovered from two different houses located in the Sidhra Residential Colony in the outskirts of Jammu.
A Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Chandan Kohli, said, “The bodies have been shifted to the Government Medical College in the area for autopsy. Prima facie it appears to be a case of poisoning. However, the cause of the deaths is yet to be ascertained. It could be either a case of mass suicide or mass murder.”
He informed that a special investigation team (SIT) headed by SP, Rural, Sanjay Sharma, comprising SDPO Nagrota, Pardeep Kumar, Inspector Vishav Partap, and Sub-Inspector Majid Hussain, has been formed to investigate the matter.
Giving details about the incident, Kohli said the police received a call at around 10 pm last night from a woman named Shahzada from Barzulla, Srinagar. She suspected that her brother Noor Ul Habib had committed suicide as he was not picking up her calls.
On receiving the information, a police team of the Sidhra police post and the Nagrota police station rushed to the spot where they found that the doors of the house were bolted from inside and a foul smell was emanating from inside.
The police team broke open the door and entered the house where four dead bodies were found lying. Teams from forensic laboratory and crime branch were summoned at the spot. On inquiry, it was found that the dead bodies were of Noor Ul Habib, Sakina Begum, Sajad Ahmed, and Naseema Akhter.
The police team came to know about another house situated nearby which belonged to one of the deceased. They went there and found two more dead bodies. The deceased were identified as Rubina Bano and Zafar Salim.
All the dead bodies have been preserved in the mortuary and an inquest has been initiated to ascertain the cause of the deaths.