Tenant of ‘Horror House’ in Burari haunted by people’s fear

Standing somewhat midway on a long lane — numbered 4 — just wide enough for a car and two-wheeler to pass at the same time, like umpteen lanes in Delhi’s residential areas, stands a house eerily unlike any other in the city, spread over 1,070 square feet, in Sant Nagar, Burari.

The narrow lane allows people staying in houses on both sides of the lane to catch more than just a glimpse of what is happening in the house opposite theirs, from balconies and windows. And yet what happened in this three-storey house of Burari on the night of June 30, in 2018, has only been pieced together through some scribbled notes found in the house. The house, which has over the last four years become synonymous with Burari, was thus called ‘House of Secrets’ in a 2021 Netflix series.

So, when 47-year-old Mohan Singh Kashyap decided to move into the house along with his wife and two children two years back on rent, many found his decision shocking. For Mohan Singh, however, there “couldn’t have been a better choice”.

Eleven members of the Chundawat family — the oldest aged 77, and the youngest 15 — that owned the property died in the Burari house in 2018, allegedly after an occult practice went wrong.

When neighbours reached the house the following morning, 77-year-old Narayan Devi was found on the floor in a room, with signs of strangling. The 10 others, including Narayan Devi’s daughter Pratibha, 57, sons Bhavnesh, 50, and Lalit Bhatia, 45, and their families, were found hanging from an iron grille attached to the ceiling with colourful ropes. Most of the bodies were found blindfolded, their mouths taped and hands tied behind the back. The only one to survive, their dog Tommy, was found chained to a grille on the terrace by the police. Tommy, an Indian-Pitbull, was found running high fever and extremely aggressive on that day. He died of cardiac arrest 22 days after Chundawats died by hanging.

Two other members of the Chundawat family— Narayan Devi’s daughter Sujata Nagpal and son Dinesh Singh — survived as they stayed in different cities.

Apart from the dog, the only one to witness the entire incident was the house. The dog may have barked that night, the house stood in silence. The silence haunted the house for well over two years as nobody agreed to take it on rent, until Kashyap zeroed in on the property.

He now runs a path lab from a shop on the ground floor. The other shop that the Chundawat family used to run a plywood shop from has been converted into a grocery store by Kashyap.

“I wouldn’t have rented this apartment had it not been for my dream of setting up a good pathology lab in Delhi. I had limited means and this property just fit into my budget,” Kashyap tells The Federal, attending to customers who drop in intermittently at the shop to buy daily household-use items such as bread, milk, eggs and oil among other things.

The stigma remains

While the grocery store does good business, Kashyap said people are wary of coming to the path lab, which he has named Dhruv Diagnostics. “I lived at the end of this lane for years and ran Dhruv Diagnostics from there. Business was good and slowly, I succeeded in building a group of dedicated clients. The owner of that property, however, decided to sell it off. I then decided to move my business to the Chundawat house because the rent was attractive.”

“The house remained vacant for more than two years. Among the causes was the ongoing probe. Forensic teams would visit often and the police too would drop in every now and then to ask questions. Many were also convinced that the house is haunted because of what happened here.”

“I, however, saw potential in the property to both allow me to run my business and accommodate my family. My children study in a school nearby and I didn’t want their studies to be disturbed when my previous landlord decided to sell his property. But the real clincher for me was the cheap rate at which the house was offered. I have got the property at half the market price,” Mohan Kashyap said.

“Despite horror stories floating around, my wife and I made up our minds to shift here,” he said. Kashyap claimed he performed no special ritual before moving in. “We performed a small havan, which is customary when you move into any new house or shop,” he added.

“My wife played a bigger role in influencing my decision and encouraged me to shift to this house as it helped us save a lot of money,” he said.

The ground floor of house has been occupied by the Kashyaps since January 2020, which they use for both staying and running the two businesses. The second and the third floor are occupied by Ahmed Ali, who worked at the Chundawat plywood store, and his brother Afsar, who too is a carpenter by profession. The brothers were asked to move into the house by Dinesh after the incident. They stay there free of cost and take care of the property in return.

Even though Mohan has benefited because he has to pay lower rent, his path lab has taken a hit since he shifted it to the new house.

“When my path lab was at the end of this lane, I had a committed clientele. Because the chatter about the incident refuses to die down, I have lost even my loyal clients. People keep spreading such rumours,” said Kashyap. There are many in the area who claim of hearing strange noises and having “strange feelings” around the house.

“The other day a woman dropped in. She filled up the form for blood tests and even paid some advance to book her appointment. I kept waiting for her for more than a week. With no communication from her side, I called her to check on her. I was surprised to find her angry. She screamed into the phone. ‘I didn’t know that your lab is on the premises of a horror house, and I have been advised to cancel my tests by my well-wishers.”

“She even asked me for a refund.”

“I am not sure how my business will thrive amid such superstitions,” he said.

For the Kashyaps, the house wasn’t an unknown or unchartered territory. When the Chundawat family was alive, Kashyap’s son and daughter visited it to take tuitions from Priyanka Chundawat, one of the daughters of the family, who too died in the incident.
“I was familiar with the house because my children took tuitions from Priyanka. The Chundawats were very nice people. While my wife accompanied the children for the tuitions on weekdays, I would come with them during the weekends. After my children started taking classes from Priyanka, their results showed remarkable improvement,” Kashyap claimed.

The missing 11 pipes

Rubbishing reports that the family installed 11 pipes in the house to allow the souls of the dead an unhindered passage, Kashyap said, it is now clear the pipes were only for ventilation. Earlier, Ahmed Ali, who reportedly installed the pipes too had said that the pipes were for ventilation as they opened into an empty plot next to the Chundawat house.

“Dinesh Singh Chundawat, the elder brother of Lalit Singh [who allegedly led the occult ritual], got the pipes removed as he did not want the property to be known as a ‘ghost house’”, he said.

Mohan Kashyap also dismissed rumours that many residents were planning to leave the area after the incident, saying death in a house or area can’t be the reason to leave it.

“This is completely false. Why would people leave if some mishap has occurred in one of the houses in the locality? Just because of a death? My father-in-law passed away a few years ago in his ancestral house. Does it mean that his family will vacate the house?” he asked.

While Mohan Kashyap chose to live in the house, many refused to even pass by it, in the immediate aftermath of the incident.

A real estate agent in the area, who cracked the deal, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, “After the incident in 2018, the house was vacant for more than two years. People even refused to pass by the site, let alone stay in it. It was during that time Dinesh Chundawat asked me and few other agents in the area to look for tenants.”

“Dinesh ji knew it would be difficult to find someone, so he asked us to ask potential tenants for rent that was 50-60 per cent below the prevailing market rate. Though I had expressed my reservations at the throwaway price being offered by Dinesh ji, it was his decision after all. I only acted as a mediator,” said the agent.

But Mohan wasn’t the first tenant. “Few tenants moved into the house, but all of them left within a week unable to overcome their fears. I had almost finalised the deal with three businessmen for the shops. Two of them even paid the security amount, but backed out before the completion of the deal as rumours of ghosts got the better of them,” the agent told The Federal.

“I tried extremely hard to convince people to consider renting the house as it was quite spacious. Eventually, Mohan Kashyap whose lab was in our lane, approached me. As Mohan’s family had visited the house prior to that fateful night, I didn’t have to convince him that there are no ghosts in the house. Mohan ji was only concerned about the rent and how convenient it would be for the children as there school was close by,” the agent said.

Owner’s concerns

Sixty-four-year old Dinesh Chundawat, who stays in Rajasthan, where he worked as a contractor, said he finds it hard to come to terms with the incident and wants to eventually sell the house.

“At this age, people yearn for a family. I have everything, but a family. We were very close as brothers and I was the eldest,” he told The Federal over phone.

He said it was difficult finding a tenant. Dinesh claimed said while the value of the house was around Rs 3 crore in 2018, he rented it out at just Rs 10,000 to the Kashyaps.

“I will start looking for potential buyers once the succession papers are ready. The house was in the name of Bhavnesh and in another six-seven months I hope to be able to complete the succession process. I will then sell the house. I visit the house once every two-three months to see it is being maintained well,” he shared.

Even as Dinesh grapples with the issues of finding a buyer, he claims that the incident has taken a huge toll on him.

“I don’t feel like visiting Delhi because it reminds me of what happened. I have no ailments but have lost 11 kgs since 2018. Loneliness, memories and sadness are perhaps taking a toll on me.

Will it be easy to sell the property after the stigma?

Property dealers feel while it may not be too difficult to find a buyer, finding a good deal in favour of the owner may not be possible.

“A few years ago, a man killed a woman in Burari. That property was sold for just Rs 30 lakh. Its market price was between Rs 60 lakh and Rs 70 lakh. This house, too, will go cheap eventually,” said another agent in the area.