Woman, her three kids die in Delhi flat, probe on

Deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) R Sathiyasundaram said they got a PCR call around 1.30pm on Wednesday from one of the victims’ neighbours, stating that “four-five people were lying unconscious on the fifth floor of the building”.

A 30-year-old woman and her three minor children died inside their home in Shahdara's Old Seemapuri area on Wednesday, with police suspecting that they died after inhaling toxic fumes from a burning angithi in the unventilated room. The woman’s husband and a fourth child escaped as they had stepped out from the room in the morning.

The house in Seemapuri where the incident took place. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

Deputy commissioner of police (Shahdara) R Sathiyasundaram said they got a PCR call around 1.30pm on Wednesday from one of the victims’ neighbours, stating that “four-five people were lying unconscious on the fifth floor of the building”.

“The team of Seemapuri police station reached the spot and found a woman and two children unconscious on the fifth floor. A third child was still breathing when the team reached. They were rushed to a nearby hospital but they were all declared dead on arrival,” said the DCP, adding that an angithi was also found on the fifth floor room.

Police identified the victims as Radha (30) and her children -- two boys and a girls, aged 3 to 8. The flat owner, Amarpal Singh (60), told the police that she had moved into the new house with her husband, Mohit Kala (35) and their four children on Tuesday, one day before the mishap.

“On preliminary enquiry, it seems that they all died due to suffocation because of the angeethi and no ventilation inside a small room. However, the actual cause of death can only be known after we received the post mortem report. We are yet to question Mohit as he was not in a state to speak at the moment. We are further investigating the matter,” said the DCP.