New Delhi, July 3: The relatives of 11 family members found hanging in their Burari house denounced the police and the media on Tuesday for allegedly labelling the decesed as some sort of religious maniacs and demanded a CBI probe into the case.
Ketan Nagpal, a maternal grandson of deceased septuagenarian Narayani Devi, said: "Every Hindu family worship and performs 'havans', 'paath' and 'kirtans' and so did our family. That is so common in every household and temples. But police has failed to crack the case despite the media reporting on the basis of police probe to paint us as a family of maniacs."
"We are not happy with the Crime Branch investigation so far and demand a fair probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation. We cannot believe Lalit Bhatia indulged in the killing of his family under some mania," Nagpal said.
A Crime Branch team meanwhile visited the family's residence in north Delhi's Sant Nagar and tried to recreate the sequence of crime.
The police also questioned some relatives of the deceased family members, who have since come to Delhi from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, to know whether any of the now-dead family members was in touch with any godman or occultist before their deaths.
"Five stools used by the family for hanging from iron grills have been seized," a senior police officer said, adding that new sashes were used to make the nooses used for hanging.
"The stools were purchased five days ago. When a neighbour asked the family, (one of the deceased) Lalit Bhatia's wife Tina said these were meant for use by children for studies," he said.
"An entry in a diary seized from worship area in the house said that each participant will tie his or her hands during the ritual practice and later untie those of others," the officer added.
"Police is also probing the case from an angle of mental disorder," he said.
The officer claimed that Lalit Bhatia kept two registers and read a 'Laal Kitaab', hinting at mysticism. He had been writing them since 2015 as per the entries. He also mentioned in the notes about his father's visits in his dreams and talks, the officer said.
The texts discussed spirituality, salvation, rituals, and a few dates of last month. Some notes were written on June 27 and 28 on the day of 'Vat Purnima'.
"The notes indicated that Lalit Bhatia believed that his late father was still giving him advice. The notes pointed at one man's hallucinations and delusions of an impending apocalypse," he said.
The officer claimed that Lalit Bhatia, on the day of the crime, allegedly told his family that he had received a message from his late father that he would come to meet them all after a ritual prayer.
"Based on our investigations, it is very likely that Lalit Bhatia tied the hands of the male family members while his wife Tina tied the hands and legs of women family members. He later tied the hands and mouth of Tina and then hung himself during the ritual prayer," he added.
"Experts will examine the handwriting of Lalit Bhatia to match with notes on seized diary and registers. The call records of the entire family are being examining to ascertain whether they were in contact with any occultist or godman, or any personal enmity with the family," Joint Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar said.
As per the preliminary post-mortem reports, all family members died of hanging on Sunday.
The deceased were Narayani Devi, 77, her sons Bhavnesh Bhatia, 50, and Lalit Bhatia, 45, and daughters Pratibha, 57, and Priyanka, 33.
Bhavnesh's wife Savita, 48, and their children Nitu, 25, Monu, 23, and Dhruv, 15, were also found dead, along with Lalit's wife Tina, 42, and their son Shivam, 15.
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Mumbai, Aug 13 (PTI): The RBI will introduce a new mechanism from October 4 for clearance of cheques within hours of being presented to banks, reducing the current time period of up to two working days.
Cheques will be scanned, presented, and passed in a few hours and on a continuous basis during business hours. The clearing cycle will be reduced from the present T+1 days to a few hours.
Cheque Truncation System (CTS) currently processes cheques with a clearing cycle of up to two working days.
To improve the efficiency of cheque clearing and reduce settlement risk for participants, and to enhance customer experience, the RBI has decided to transition CTS from the current approach of batch processing to continuous clearing with 'on-realisation-settlement'.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a circular for introduction of Continuous Clearing and Settlement on Realisation in CTS.
"It has been decided to transition CTS to continuous clearing and settlement on realisation in two phases. Phase 1 shall be implemented on October 4, 2025 and Phase 2 on January 3, 2026," it said.
There will be a single presentation session from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
Cheques received by the branches shall be scanned and sent to the clearing house by the banks immediately and continuously during the presentation session, RBI said.
"For every cheque presented, the drawee bank shall generate either positive confirmation (for honoured cheques) or negative confirmation (for dishonoured cheques)," it said.
During Phase 1 (from October 4, 2025 to January 2, 2026), drawee banks will be required to confirm (positively/negatively) cheques presented on them, latest by the end of the confirmation session (7:00 PM), else those will be deemed to have been approved and included for settlement.
In Phase 2 (from January 3, 2026), the item expiry time of cheques shall be changed to T+3 clear hours.
Giving an example, the RBI said the cheques received by drawee banks between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM will have to be confirmed positively or negatively by them by 2:00 PM (3 hours from 11:00 AM).
Cheques for which confirmation is not provided by the drawee bank in the prescribed 3 hours shall be treated as deemed approved and included for settlement at 2:00 PM.
RBI further said that on completion of settlement, the clearing house will release the information of positive and negative confirmations to the presenting bank.
"The presenting bank shall process the same and release the payment to the customers immediately, but not later than 1 hour from successful settlement, subject to usual safeguards," it said.
RBI directed banks to make their customers adequately aware of the changes in the cheque clearing process.
Banks have also been asked to be in readiness to participate in continuous clearing in CTS on the prescribed dates.