Bodies of 11 persons of the same family were found from a residence in Burari area of Delhi on Sunday morning.
Ten bodies were found hanging from the iron mesh ceiling in a room while the body of 77-year-old woman was found on the floor from a different room of the house, the police informed. The eyes and mouth of those found hanging were covered with cloth and taped while the hands and feet of the two children, aged 15, were tied.
Police found some hand written notes during the search of house which suggest that the family might have been a part of some religious cult. However, the content of notes is not very clear.
The deceased were identified as Narayan Devi, who was found dead on the floor, her daughter Pratibha (57), her two sons Bhavnesh (50) and Lalit Bhatia (45).
Bhavnesh's wife Savita (48) and their three children - Meenu (23) and Nidhi (25), and Dhruv, aged 15.
Lalit Bhatia's wife Tina (42) and their 15-year-old son Shivam were also among those found dead.
Pratibha's daughter Priyanka (33), who was engaged last month and would have married by the end of this year, was also found hanging.
The police informed that while prima facie case looks that of suicide, all the possible angles of homicide are being investigated as well. No suicide note was recovered from the spot.
Sources informed that the family ran a grocery shop and pywood business at their double storey house in Sant Nagar, North Delhi.
A senior police officer said, "Every day the shop opens at 6 am but on Sunday when the family did not open the shop till 7:30 am, a neighbour went to check and found the bodies of the entire family hanging from the grill ceiling."
Crime branch has taken over the investigation of the case.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the site of incident on Sunday afternoon.