This is one of the most shocking incidents that has happened in recent times. Nine members of a family of 11 on Sunday morning had killed themselves by hanging to the ceiling at their North Delhi house. It's a case of mass suicide. Investigations have revealed some mind-boggling "facts".

It's suspected by police that the dead family members were trying to perform a ritual. A ritual? Yes. Their aim was to "hang in a formation that would replicate the hanging roots of a banyan tree," says a report.

This ritual is called 'Vat tapasya'.

It seems the family members had been planning to do this since at least 2015. In fact, there were even rehearsals for this fatal act. This can form the flashback episode of a spooky horror-thriller actually.

There is more.

The police are actually suspecting the hand of an occultist in all this. Ordinary folks don't enact such rituals without some kind of brainwashing.

Lalit Bhatia, one of the family elders, used to claim that he was in touch with his dead father and even took his "instructions related to property, business and family responsibilities."