After being exposed to poltergeist activity in his home, a qualified commercial pilot decided to study Metaphysics. He wanted to understand the supernatural and find ways of explaining it to others. Gaurav Tiwari visited more than 6000 haunted sites in a decade and became one of the world’s most prolific paranormal investigators. When he was found dead in his bathroom with a black line around his neck, people wondered if a dark force had caught up with him.
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TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00
[Music]
00:00:05
you are listening to the Evidence Locker
00:00:08
our cases have been researched using
00:00:10
open source and archive materials it
00:00:12
deals with true crimes and real people
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some parts are graphic in nature and
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listener discretion is advised
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each episode is produced with the utmost
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respect to the victims their families
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and loved ones
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a group of paranormal investigators
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drove through the countryside
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up to the abandoned Bangor fort in the
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aowa district of Rajasthan
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the ruins of this historic town have
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been rumored to be one of the most
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haunted places in India
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on this day in 2012 India's most
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prolific ghost hunter Gaurav Tawari and
00:00:45
his team were about to do the
00:00:46
unthinkable spend a night within the
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walls of the abandoned fort
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two legends speculating about why the
00:00:52
town was abandoned have been passed down
00:00:54
through the generations
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the first story is that of the arrogant
00:00:58
neighboring king Guru balinath who is Gaurav
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believed to have cursed the city of
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Bangor he proclaimed the moment the
00:01:05
shadows of your palaces touch me the
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city shall be no more
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many years passed and a young prince
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came to power
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he was not informed about the threat and
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raised one of the towers of his palace
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casting a shadow over guru Balingnoth's
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property he did not forget the agreement
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and devastated the city and all its
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people
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the second legend is about the princess
00:01:27
Ratnavadi with her spellbinding beauty
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a tantric sorcerer who practiced
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black magic fell in love with her but
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knew she would never choose him over her
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endless parade of young and handsome
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suitors
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he concocted a potion that would make
00:01:40
her love him and sent it to her
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disguised as perfume
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somehow Ratnavadi discovered his plan
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and smashed the bottle of perfume which
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turned into a boulder that rolled onto
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the sorcerer
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the scorn sorcerer used his dying breath
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to curse the princess her family and the
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entire city
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the next year a battle was fought and
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everyone within the fort's walls died
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including the princess
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because of the curse no one in Bangor
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could be reborn
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which is why it has been forsaken
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forever
00:02:11
doomed to be haunted by its former
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residents who will never find peace
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throughout the years
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countless people have reported strange
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occurrences at the fort strange noises
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at night an inexplicable feeling of
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anxiety
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at the entrance to the fort is a sign
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that was erected by the archaeological
00:02:30
survey of India
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entering the borders of Bangor before
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sunrise and after sunset is strictly
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prohibited
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legend has it that if someone were to
00:02:40
stay at the fort after the sunset they
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would not live to see the sun rise
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gaurav Tawari was a paranormal
00:02:47
investigator who believed in science not
00:02:49
legends
00:02:51
by staying the night and finding no
00:02:52
evidence of paranormal activity he
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debunked the myth of Bangor
00:02:57
he felt that people made too much of the
00:02:58
warning sign at the gate
00:03:00
the ruins back onto the Sariska tiger
00:03:02
reserve their sign was most likely
00:03:04
placed at the entrance to protect
00:03:06
visitors from wildlife predators who
00:03:08
hunt at night not ghosts
00:03:11
but when 32 year old Gaurav died in
00:03:13
mysterious circumstances five years
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later
00:03:15
some people believed that his death was
00:03:17
a direct consequence of him taunting the
00:03:19
curse of Bangor
00:03:21
police have ruled his death a suicide
00:03:23
but was there something much darker
00:03:26
at play
00:03:39
[Music]
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[Music]
00:04:00
gaurav Tawari was born on the 2nd of
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September 1984 in Lucknow India
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he was close to his family and was well
00:04:07
educated
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from an early age it was evident that
00:04:11
Gaurav was a talented young man
00:04:13
he loved acting writing singing and
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learning new things
00:04:16
he also had a black belt in Taekwondo
00:04:19
despite his many talents Gaurav's plan a
00:04:22
was to become an actor
00:04:24
at the age of 16 his acting career
00:04:25
kicked off and he had a couple of gigs
00:04:27
like minor roles in Indian produced
00:04:29
films like tango Charlie and 16th
00:04:31
december
00:04:33
Gaurav soon realized that he probably
00:04:35
wouldn't achieve great success as a
00:04:36
serious movie actor and his parents
00:04:38
supported him to change direction
00:04:40
fortunately Gaurav had many interests
00:04:43
and he decided to go down another path
00:04:45
to explore another one of his passions
00:04:48
in 2006 the 18 year old went to America
00:04:50
where he studied to become a commercial
00:04:52
pilot
00:04:53
he trained at MVP Aero Academy in Texas
00:04:56
and also at Orlando flight training in
00:04:58
florida
00:05:00
the time Gaurav spent in Florida turned
00:05:02
out to be life-altering
00:05:03
during his pilot training he was lodged
00:05:05
in a shared apartment with fellow
00:05:07
students
00:05:08
this is where Gaurav and a couple of
00:05:10
other students experienced strange
00:05:11
occurrences
00:05:13
Gaurav would later refer to it as
00:05:15
poltergeist activity whispers footsteps
00:05:17
and so on
00:05:19
he even heard someone speaking and there
00:05:21
was no one but him in the room
00:05:24
raised to follow hinduism Gaurav wasn't
00:05:26
someone who ever believed in ghosts or
00:05:28
paranormal activity
00:05:30
hinduism believes in reincarnation the
00:05:32
belief that after death one soul takes
00:05:34
on another physical form in a new body
00:05:37
a spirit has many incarnations learning
00:05:40
new lessons as it matures
00:05:42
the Tawari family did not believe in the
00:05:44
supernatural or paranormal so Gaurav's
00:05:47
experience with the poltergeist
00:05:48
challenged his entire belief system
00:05:51
at first he tried to shake it all off
00:05:53
ghosts don't exist right
00:05:56
but the strange incidents at the
00:05:58
apartment in Florida did not stop
00:06:01
Gaurav realized that whatever it was it
00:06:03
wasn't going away
00:06:05
being someone who enjoyed research and
00:06:07
understanding the world he became
00:06:08
determined to make sense of it all
00:06:10
so while he was still completing his
00:06:11
commercial pilot's qualification he
00:06:14
enrolled to study metaphysics at the
00:06:15
IMHS Metaphysics Institute in Florida
00:06:19
Gaurav also went on to receive his
00:06:21
certification as a lead anomalous
00:06:23
investigator from the Paranexus
00:06:24
Anomalous Research Association in
00:06:26
Florida from the start he was a very
00:06:29
dedicated investigator
00:06:31
he visited more than 80 said to be
00:06:32
haunted locations to gain a better
00:06:34
understanding of the various phenomena
00:06:37
his tenacity garnered a lot of respect
00:06:38
from others working in the field of
00:06:40
paranormal investigation
00:06:44
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back to today's
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episode Gaurav with his love for
00:08:27
engineering and flying had a logical
00:08:29
scientific mind that needed to
00:08:30
understand things
00:08:32
he was spooked when he couldn't explain
00:08:33
what was going on in their apartment
00:08:36
this is when he set out to learn about
00:08:37
paranormal activity as he could not find
00:08:39
a logical explanation
00:08:41
there had to be something else behind it
00:08:43
a magnetic field perhaps something
00:08:46
Gaurav referred to himself as a technical
00:08:48
guy and was not sure if he even believed
00:08:51
in the paranormal when he started his
00:08:52
studies
00:08:54
with his commercial pilot's license in
00:08:56
hand Gaurav Tawari went back home to
00:08:58
India but he would not be a pilot for
00:09:00
long instead he decided to take another
00:09:03
path
00:09:04
in 2009 he founded the Indian paranormal
00:09:07
society the first of its kind in India
00:09:10
with 1.3 billion people India is the
00:09:13
second most populous country in the
00:09:15
world after china
00:09:16
it has a rich history and the people are
00:09:19
deeply spiritual
00:09:20
almost 80 percent of the country follow
00:09:22
hinduism worshiping millions of gods
00:09:25
besides religion folklore and
00:09:27
superstition also play a significant
00:09:29
role in the collective consciousness of
00:09:30
Indian people
00:09:32
countless legends have been passed down
00:09:33
through generations and some stand by it
00:09:35
is factual history
00:09:38
people take a keen interest in haunted
00:09:39
places and ghost tours are widely
00:09:41
popular throughout the country
00:09:43
Gaurav Tawari saw an opportunity to learn
00:09:46
more about these countless stories in
00:09:47
his country
00:09:49
the Indian paranormal society aimed to
00:09:50
provide knowledge to people about
00:09:52
paranormal activities so they could get
00:09:54
rid of their fears fueled by information
00:09:56
from myths and legends
00:09:58
the Indian paranormal society attracted
00:10:00
a lot of interest
00:10:02
Gaurav was inundated with people wanting
00:10:04
him to come to their homes
00:10:06
his office in Delhi reportedly received
00:10:08
as many as 10 phone calls a day and
00:10:10
emails also came flying in
00:10:13
people reported that their homes were
00:10:14
haunted and wanted Gaurav to investigate
00:10:16
he soon became a household name as
00:10:18
India's best ghost hunter and some
00:10:20
people even called him India's ed warren
00:10:23
if you don't know who ed warren is he
00:10:25
was an American paranormal investigator
00:10:27
whose incredible work inspired the 2013
00:10:29
blockbuster film the conjuring
00:10:32
before long Gaurav found himself drowning
00:10:34
in work so much so that he had to employ
00:10:37
a team of people to help him
00:10:39
he called the team grip an acronym that
00:10:42
stands for ghost research and
00:10:43
investigators of paranormal because of
00:10:46
their work people in India began to
00:10:48
question the paranormal
00:10:50
being a paranormal investigator is not
00:10:52
your average 9 to 5 job
00:10:54
Gaurav's work took him to some of the
00:10:56
scariest places in the country
00:10:58
abandoned houses morgues graveyards and
00:11:01
even vacant churches
00:11:03
paranormal sightings typically come
00:11:04
about as a mixture of urban legend added
00:11:06
with the conviction of witnesses saying
00:11:08
that they experienced something
00:11:10
supernatural
00:11:11
if someone informed Gaurav about a
00:11:13
haunting he would go to a place with his
00:11:15
team and spend hours and hours gathering
00:11:17
information
00:11:18
Gaurav always a man of science and reason
00:11:21
believed that some of the strange
00:11:22
occurrences could be explained logically
00:11:25
sometimes it was an optical illusion or
00:11:26
light phenomena
00:11:28
Gaurav always tried to reason his way
00:11:30
through it and relied on audio and video
00:11:32
recordings to gather evidence
00:11:34
interestingly he also theorized that in
00:11:37
many cases a paranormal sighting had a
00:11:39
lot to do with the person who saw it
00:11:42
sometimes a person who had been
00:11:43
tormented by grief or sadness wanted to
00:11:45
see something from the other side
00:11:48
sometimes people's own energy fields
00:11:50
were so vibrant that it caused objects
00:11:52
to move or doors to slam
00:11:54
Gaurav explored the psychology behind
00:11:56
people who see ghosts and witnessed
00:11:58
strange occurrences
00:12:00
in his constant quest for knowledge
00:12:02
Gaurav also became a qualified
00:12:03
hypnotherapist as well as an ordained
00:12:05
minister in the metaphysical church of
00:12:07
humanistic science
00:12:09
he spoke to people who reported
00:12:11
sightings to learn more about the whole
00:12:12
situation
00:12:13
not only what they saw but what their
00:12:15
personal circumstances were
00:12:17
in the end he concluded that 98 of the
00:12:20
cases were due to psychological issues
00:12:22
or hallucinations
00:12:24
Gaurav approached each case as a skeptic
00:12:27
hoping to find a scientific or
00:12:28
psychological reason for an apparition
00:12:31
in one interview gaurav said
00:12:34
our primary objective is to rid people
00:12:36
of the superstitions surrounding ghosts
00:12:38
we have a neutral approach to all of our
00:12:40
cases we investigate several scientific
00:12:43
possibilities and only after ruling
00:12:45
those out do we come to our conclusion
00:12:47
we do not just detect paranormal
00:12:49
activities but also give counselling and
00:12:51
help people learn to communicate with
00:12:53
spirits so far we have helped over 200
00:12:56
people
00:12:57
in his blog Gaurav recounts a case of a
00:13:00
young girl who is possessed her parents
00:13:02
called Gaurav to intervene and perform an
00:13:04
exorcism but Gaurav always knew to look
00:13:07
at the whole picture
00:13:08
instead of just accepting the fact that
00:13:10
the girl was possessed he tried to
00:13:12
understand the demon within her
00:13:14
at first he struggled to converse with
00:13:16
the girl because she refused to speak
00:13:18
unless she was given a glass of blood
00:13:20
she hurt insults and threats in a
00:13:22
growling voice calling herself Ajit
00:13:25
saying that he was going to take the
00:13:26
girl with him
00:13:29
Gaurav took the girl's father aside and
00:13:31
asked him if the girl knew anyone by the
00:13:32
name of Ajit
00:13:34
as it turned out she did
00:13:36
in fact it was quite a traumatic story
00:13:38
the boy had asked her to marry him and
00:13:40
she had said no
00:13:42
unable to cope with the rejection Ajit
00:13:44
ended his own life
00:13:46
the girl was consumed with guilt and
00:13:48
over time her mental state had become
00:13:49
very fragile
00:13:51
this made her susceptible to being
00:13:52
possessed
00:13:53
Gaurav felt that the girl was afraid that
00:13:55
Ajit's spirit would possess her as he
00:13:58
couldn't keep her in life
00:14:00
using hypnotherapy he gently talked to
00:14:02
the girl coaxing the dark energy to
00:14:04
leave which it did
00:14:06
according to Gaurav possession is
00:14:09
self-made
00:14:10
in this story he exercised the girl's
00:14:13
deep-rooted feeling of guilt not a demon
00:14:16
it was psychology not hocus pocus
00:14:18
after the session Gaurav insisted the
00:14:20
parents have a medical doctor tend to
00:14:22
the girl and suggested psychotherapy
00:14:24
going forward in conclusion he said
00:14:27
possession is not only done by spirits
00:14:29
it can be done by a living person too
00:14:32
we can only stop possession if we are
00:14:33
possessed by ourselves and strongly
00:14:35
believe in what we are
00:14:38
however in a handful of cases possession
00:14:41
and haunting defy all rational reasoning
00:14:44
those cases were the ones that made
00:14:45
Gaurav and his team believe in the
00:14:47
paranormal
00:14:48
he also investigated ufo sightings and
00:14:50
abductions strange creatures and
00:14:52
anything that warranted questioning
00:14:55
he went out of his way to provide
00:14:56
answers to clients based on research
00:14:59
in some instances homes or buildings
00:15:01
were plagued by unexplained events
00:15:03
the grip team would then spend a
00:15:04
significant period inside the place
00:15:06
using audio and video recorders and
00:15:08
magnetic plates to identify and
00:15:09
communicate with spirits they would then
00:15:12
purge the souls from their dwellings and
00:15:14
help the living residents to live in
00:15:15
peace again
00:15:17
Gaurav often referred to his work at
00:15:19
Bangor fort as the best example of a
00:15:21
hoax that has cemented itself into a
00:15:22
popularly believed notion
00:15:25
his equipment showed no signs of
00:15:26
activity and ultimately his whole team
00:15:28
was still alive so the curse was not
00:15:30
real
00:15:32
in Gaurav's opinion the paranormal world
00:15:34
is mostly docile and fun to explore
00:15:38
in his ted talk titled do ghosts exist
00:15:41
Gaurav claimed that ghosts are nothing to
00:15:43
be scared of he believed that spirits
00:15:45
move objects or communicate using ESP to
00:15:48
let people know that they are there not
00:15:50
to spook them
00:15:51
he felt that souls who are left to
00:15:53
linger are confused and need help to
00:15:54
take care of unfinished desires
00:15:57
Gaurav set out to communicate with
00:15:59
spirits and explain how he understood
00:16:00
the notion of ghosts
00:16:03
the ghost is nothing but the residual
00:16:05
consciousness of a deceased physical
00:16:07
body it's the anticipation of what a
00:16:09
ghost can do that can actually do
00:16:11
serious damage the fear of the unknown
00:16:15
before long the eloquent and
00:16:17
well-informed Gaurav Tawari caught the
00:16:19
attention of television producers
00:16:21
because he had had some experience in
00:16:23
front of the camera they saw potential
00:16:25
in using him for reality shows
00:16:27
it was tremendously exciting for him
00:16:28
that production companies came calling
00:16:31
he could carry on doing something that
00:16:32
genuinely interested him all the while
00:16:35
getting back to his dream of being a tv
00:16:36
personality
00:16:38
Gaurav's career as a television
00:16:40
paranormal investigator took off in the
00:16:42
fast lane
00:16:43
he appeared in television shows such as
00:16:45
MTV's girls night out fear files haunted
00:16:48
weekends with sunny Leone and boot aya
00:16:51
his gig on MTV's series girls night out
00:16:54
brought Gaurav international fame
00:16:56
it was the first show of its kind in
00:16:58
India and won the best reality show at
00:17:00
the asian television awards in 2011.
00:17:03
the series was well produced and
00:17:05
researched each episode following a
00:17:06
serious investigation into reports of
00:17:09
haunted places throughout India
00:17:11
in 2015 Gaurav Tawari starred as one of a
00:17:15
team of five paranormal experts in the
00:17:17
Australian ghost hunting series haunted
00:17:19
australia
00:17:20
throughout the series it was evident
00:17:22
that Gaurav was more than just a slick
00:17:23
well-spoken presenter he was
00:17:25
knowledgeable and applied logic thinking
00:17:27
to his investigations
00:17:29
as a paranormal investigator he did not
00:17:31
rely on spooky sensation but instead
00:17:34
focused on things he could prove or
00:17:35
disprove
00:17:37
Gaurav and the haunted Australia team
00:17:39
went into some of Australia's most
00:17:40
haunted places
00:17:41
he was not afraid of getting his hands
00:17:43
dirty either when everyone else freaked
00:17:45
out or wanted to pull the plug on an
00:17:47
investigation Gaurav was the one who kept
00:17:49
his cool
00:17:50
Gaurav was the fearless guy who got
00:17:52
things done
00:17:53
in one scene the presenter refers to him
00:17:55
as gutsy Gaurav
00:17:58
haunted Australia took gore off to some
00:17:59
dark places
00:18:01
later on when asked to name the most
00:18:02
haunted place he'd ever visited without
00:18:04
missing a beat he always said it was the
00:18:06
Aradelle asylum
00:18:08
located on a hill outside of Arrarat
00:18:09
Victoria where astray is criminally
00:18:11
insane were housed for more than a
00:18:13
hundred years countless tortured souls
00:18:15
lost their lives
00:18:17
on a separate occasion the group of
00:18:19
haunted Australia decided to spend one
00:18:21
night filming inside the chiller of an
00:18:23
abandoned morgue
00:18:24
no one else was up for the task but
00:18:26
Gaurav on crutches with an injured leg
00:18:28
volunteered he went to lay down on the
00:18:30
slab of a chiller where countless dead
00:18:32
bodies had lain before
00:18:34
Gaurav stayed in there overnight with
00:18:36
nothing but a video camera and a torch
00:18:39
to him it was another investigation into
00:18:41
the unknown an opportunity to gain
00:18:43
knowledge in his own words
00:18:46
to me knowledge cancels fear
00:18:49
in the series Gaurav showed his methods
00:18:51
of detecting paranormal activity
00:18:53
he used rempods which emitted
00:18:55
electromagnetic fields
00:18:57
when a field was broken the device
00:18:59
beeped and a light flashed
00:19:01
Gaurav explained it like this
00:19:04
spirits are also made of energy
00:19:06
so if there is a disruption in the
00:19:08
electromagnetic field it is a sign of
00:19:10
paranormal activity
00:19:13
in one incident using the rem pod to
00:19:15
communicate with the spirit Gaurav asked
00:19:17
questions and instructed the spirit of
00:19:19
an unknown woman how to answer him
00:19:21
he said to trigger the light on the left
00:19:23
for yes or right for no
00:19:25
after a conversation during which the
00:19:27
spirit communicated that she wanted to
00:19:28
be left alone Gaurav walked around the
00:19:31
room with a device testing for
00:19:32
electromagnetic fields or EMF but
00:19:35
nothing showed up
00:19:36
he explained to the audience that a
00:19:38
flashing light didn't always mean you
00:19:39
were dealing with a spirit
00:19:41
high EMF could also have triggered the
00:19:42
devices but in this case there was no
00:19:45
electronic magnetic field in the room
00:19:48
and that was how Gaurav worked he always
00:19:50
tried to debunk his own methods and when
00:19:53
there was no scientific explanation the
00:19:55
only conclusion was that there had to be
00:19:56
another reason something unseen
00:19:59
something paranormal
00:20:01
after haunted Australia wrapped Gaurav
00:20:03
returned to India and carried on with
00:20:04
his work through the paranormal society
00:20:07
this was a job that he took very
00:20:08
seriously he wanted to help people
00:20:11
in a video posted on his facebook page
00:20:13
he makes it clear that he was not a
00:20:14
ghost hunter but a researcher
00:20:16
he didn't hunt ghosts he wanted to learn
00:20:19
from them so we could explain the
00:20:20
concept to people
00:20:22
his aim was to reduce fear and anxiety
00:20:24
especially in cases where families had
00:20:26
been driven from their homes due to
00:20:27
hauntings
00:20:28
Gaurav was not a thrill-seeker but a
00:20:30
seeker of answers
00:20:33
and the quest was relentless
00:20:35
Gaurav was a total workaholic the nature
00:20:37
of his job meant that he worked at very
00:20:39
odd hours through the night weekends
00:20:41
ghosts don't keep office hours
00:20:44
whenever there was a call Gaurav and grip
00:20:46
his team from the paranormal society
00:20:48
went to have a closer look
00:20:50
it was also clear that the nature of his
00:20:52
job became more physically challenging
00:20:53
as he said in one interview
00:20:55
the nature of spirits can vary i have
00:20:57
faced docile benevolent spirits and also
00:21:00
malevolent i've been pushed tugged
00:21:02
scratched by things that i couldn't see
00:21:05
despite his unabating routine Gaurav did
00:21:08
have time to fall in love
00:21:10
he met the beautiful arya kashyap and
00:21:11
the couple got married at the end of
00:21:13
January 2016.
00:21:15
after their nuptials the newlyweds lived
00:21:17
with Gaurav's family and Dwarka
00:21:19
arya understood that this would be a
00:21:21
temporary arrangement
00:21:22
she had hoped that once they were
00:21:24
married Gaurav would settle down and
00:21:25
perhaps get a quote unquote real job
00:21:29
but Gaurav was busier than ever
00:21:31
the calls and emails kept coming and he
00:21:33
could not show people away
00:21:35
by this time he had visited no less than
00:21:38
6 000 haunted sites or believed to be
00:21:40
haunted
00:21:41
he would determine if it was actually
00:21:43
haunted or not
00:21:44
if anyone in India was going to help
00:21:46
with a paranormal situation it would be
00:21:48
gaurav
00:21:50
because he was genuinely passionate
00:21:51
about his work the paranormal society
00:21:53
took on most cases pro bono
00:21:55
Gaurav made most of his income from
00:21:57
courses he ran
00:21:58
the goal was to educate people about
00:22:00
scientific explanations for paranormal
00:22:02
activity his tv appearances also brought
00:22:05
in some money but only as long as he was
00:22:07
working on a series
00:22:09
on Wednesday night the 6th of July 2016
00:22:12
Gaurav worked late until the night again
00:22:14
he went to a suspected haunted house in
00:22:16
west Delhi's Janakpuri neighbourhood and
00:22:18
returned around 1 30 am
00:22:21
when he came home arya was waiting up
00:22:23
and she was not impressed
00:22:25
they argued about the fact that Gaurav
00:22:27
was still out seeking ghosts while his
00:22:28
new wife spent her nights home alone
00:22:30
with his parents
00:22:32
arya was eager to move out of her
00:22:34
in-laws house and start a family but
00:22:36
Gaurav always had something else going on
00:22:39
Gaurav was tired and upset and things
00:22:41
were said that could have remained
00:22:43
unsaid the fight was not resolved and
00:22:45
guava and arya went to sleep in separate
00:22:47
rooms
00:22:49
the next morning when they woke up the
00:22:50
newlyweds made up and cleared the air
00:22:52
between them Gaurav checked his emails at
00:22:55
the dining room table until 11am then
00:22:57
went upstairs to take a shower
00:22:59
arya and Gaurav's father Yudei heard a
00:23:01
thump
00:23:03
then there a jiggling sound like someone
00:23:04
turning a doorknob
00:23:06
they didn't think it was strange seeing
00:23:08
as the bathroom door did sometimes get
00:23:09
stuck
00:23:10
they carried on drinking coffee and
00:23:12
watching tv and when Gaurav didn't
00:23:14
reappear after his shower after an hour
00:23:16
arya grew concerned
00:23:19
she decided to go and see if everything
00:23:20
was okay the bathroom door was locked
00:23:23
which was not unusual she knocked and
00:23:25
called for him but he didn't answer
00:23:28
she listened to hear if the water was
00:23:30
running but it was not in fact it was
00:23:32
eerily quiet and arya knew something was
00:23:35
terribly wrong
00:23:37
arya called gaurav's dad and when there
00:23:39
was still no response from Gaurav they
00:23:41
broke down the door
00:23:43
they found Gaurav on the ground sweating
00:23:45
profusely gasping for air with his hands
00:23:48
around his throat they picked him up and
00:23:50
rushed him to the hospital but
00:23:52
unfortunately it was too late
00:23:55
hospital staff were unable to
00:23:56
resuscitate him and he was pronounced
00:23:58
dead shortly after arrival
00:24:01
news of Gaurav's death caused an outpour
00:24:03
of speculation and sensation
00:24:05
newspapers and magazines could not get
00:24:06
enough of the story of the ghost hunter
00:24:08
who died in mysterious circumstances
00:24:11
his friends and colleagues took to
00:24:12
social media spreading the news of his
00:24:14
death
00:24:16
everyone assumed he had died of a heart
00:24:17
attack
00:24:18
he never slept too much and kept
00:24:20
irregular hours
00:24:22
when he investigated reports of
00:24:23
paranormal activity he got straight in
00:24:25
there rolled up his sleeves and actively
00:24:27
climbed and crawled wherever he had to
00:24:29
go
00:24:30
his job caused him a lot of stress as he
00:24:32
was always dealing with people in
00:24:34
nerve-wracking situations
00:24:37
everyone looked at Gaurav to provide
00:24:38
answers and to comfort them with this
00:24:40
calm and confident manner
00:24:42
but Gaurav did not die of a heart attack
00:24:45
during the post-mortem examination
00:24:48
they found a thin dark line around his
00:24:50
neck
00:24:51
when the family was asked about the mark
00:24:53
none of them could remember seeing it
00:24:54
when they found Gaurav in the bathroom
00:24:57
the cause of death was said to be
00:24:58
asphyxia
00:25:00
the next step in the investigation was
00:25:02
to determine how the asphyxia occurred
00:25:05
Gaurav was alone in the bathroom so was
00:25:07
it self-inflicted
00:25:09
or had someone let themselves into the
00:25:11
bathroom and killed him
00:25:13
or perhaps
00:25:15
was there even a darker explanation
00:25:18
a month before Gaurav's death he told his
00:25:21
wife arya that a negative force was
00:25:22
pulling him towards itself
00:25:25
even though he tried his best to control
00:25:26
it he was not able to
00:25:28
he didn't say much more and arya didn't
00:25:31
make too much of it at the time
00:25:33
she knew he had been working day and
00:25:34
night for months he was exhausted and
00:25:36
stressed and she thought that perhaps
00:25:39
his work was getting to him
00:25:41
in the week before he died Gaurav also
00:25:43
confided in his father that something
00:25:45
was wrong
00:25:46
he wasn't himself at all
00:25:48
for the first time in years his father
00:25:49
could see that his son was scared
00:25:52
in a police statement jude Tawari
00:25:54
recalled his conversation with his son
00:25:57
gaurav said
00:25:59
i've been feeling extremely
00:26:00
uncomfortable for quite some time i am
00:26:02
being followed i'm being watched by
00:26:04
someone who refuses to leave me
00:26:07
his family also told police how gaurav
00:26:09
used to talk about his work around the
00:26:11
dinner table
00:26:12
no one in his family believed in ghosts
00:26:14
but his stories were interesting so they
00:26:17
humored him he was formulating a theory
00:26:19
about a recurring phenomenon
00:26:21
black marks on pictures and a possible
00:26:24
link to spirit to distress
00:26:26
to explain his blackline theory Gaurav
00:26:28
referred to the 1976 horror film the
00:26:30
omen
00:26:32
in the film the wealthy thorne family
00:26:34
loses their baby in childbirth
00:26:36
unbeknownst to the mother distraught
00:26:38
father robert takes a child whose mother
00:26:40
died during childbirth to raise as their
00:26:42
own
00:26:43
but there is something ominous about the
00:26:45
child they called damian
00:26:47
on his fifth birthday denanny hangs
00:26:49
herself in front of everyone proclaiming
00:26:51
that she's doing it for the boy
00:26:53
a priest approaches robert saying that
00:26:55
his son was the devil's spawn the
00:26:56
antichrist
00:26:58
after this revelation the priest dies in
00:27:00
a freak accident and ends up impaled at
00:27:02
the church
00:27:04
a journalist shows robert throwing
00:27:05
photos of the nanny and the priest taken
00:27:07
before they died
00:27:08
both had black marks on them
00:27:11
the nanny had a line around her neck
00:27:13
like a noose
00:27:14
and the priest's mark was in the shape
00:27:16
of a spear
00:27:18
gora reckoned that a black mark on a
00:27:20
person or a photo of a person meant that
00:27:22
a spirit had marked them for revenge
00:27:25
at the time
00:27:26
his family didn't really believe what
00:27:28
Gaurav was telling them they felt it was
00:27:30
a developing theory and that he was just
00:27:32
speculating
00:27:34
however when they heard about the black
00:27:36
lines on his neck discovered during the
00:27:37
autopsy they couldn't help but wonder if
00:27:39
something else was at play
00:27:42
did the dark presence following the
00:27:43
ghost chaser finally catch up with him
00:27:45
to exact its revenge
00:27:48
delhi police weren't interested in ghost
00:27:49
stories and supernatural theories they
00:27:51
looked at Gaurav's death from all
00:27:53
possible angles
00:27:54
police grew suspicious of Gaurav's family
00:27:56
when some of the information they
00:27:57
provided did not add up
00:28:00
they said that Gaurav had breakfast at
00:28:01
6am that morning he died about 5 hours
00:28:04
later
00:28:05
however his autopsy revealed the
00:28:07
undigested breakfast in his stomach
00:28:10
this could perhaps have been an honest
00:28:11
mistake an error by a family in shock
00:28:14
Gaurav usually woke up at 4 30 am and
00:28:17
started his day doing yoga and had
00:28:19
breakfast around 6.
00:28:21
but remember he only got home at 1 30
00:28:23
a.m the night before
00:28:24
he had an argument with his wife and
00:28:26
then went to sleep in another room
00:28:28
it is fair to assume he didn't have a
00:28:30
great night's sleep
00:28:32
would he have woken up at his usual time
00:28:34
of 4 30
00:28:35
or would he perhaps have slept in
00:28:37
maybe he didn't feel like eating until
00:28:38
he had talked things out with his wife
00:28:40
and only ate after their discussion
00:28:43
using stomach contents to determine the
00:28:44
time of a person's death has also proven
00:28:46
to be fickle in terms of exact forensic
00:28:48
science
00:28:50
there are many factors to keep in mind
00:28:52
for instance if the victim was in
00:28:53
distress digestion would take longer
00:28:56
likewise if he had something to drink
00:28:58
with this meal digestion would only
00:28:59
start once 80 percent of the liquid had
00:29:01
been emptied out of the stomach
00:29:03
the theory that Gaurav died earlier than
00:29:05
11 am base solely on stomach content
00:29:07
evidence did not carry much weight
00:29:10
there was a rumor that arya might have
00:29:12
been behind his death
00:29:13
it was common knowledge that she did not
00:29:15
approve of his career choice
00:29:17
because he often worked through the
00:29:18
night she also suspected that he was
00:29:20
cheating on her
00:29:21
she was questioned for more than eight
00:29:22
hours by the police but could not give
00:29:24
them any answers regarding her husband's
00:29:26
death
00:29:28
investigators also found a second cell
00:29:30
phone with a sim card from an Indian
00:29:31
service provider but all the data on the
00:29:33
phone had been erased
00:29:35
no one in his immediate circle knew
00:29:37
about the second phone or why he had it
00:29:41
in the end
00:29:42
police concluded that it was suicide by
00:29:44
hanging
00:29:45
a senior police official told the media
00:29:47
shortly after his death
00:29:49
the preliminary autopsy report confirms
00:29:51
that he committed suicide
00:29:52
all his family members including his
00:29:54
parents and wife were present in the
00:29:55
dwarka flat when he hanged himself with
00:29:57
a cloth in the bathroom from an iron rod
00:30:00
used for hanging clothes
00:30:02
people who knew and worked with Gaurav
00:30:04
doubted that the 32 year old would have
00:30:05
taken his own life
00:30:07
he was tough as nails
00:30:09
a fearless man who dared put himself in
00:30:10
scary situations on his quest to find
00:30:12
out the truth
00:30:14
remember he's not in the morgue while he
00:30:16
was on crutches
00:30:17
that was the person everyone knew
00:30:20
having some late nights with a
00:30:21
discontented wife at home would not have
00:30:22
been too much for him to bear he was
00:30:24
trying to work things out as best he
00:30:26
could
00:30:28
of course standing on the outside one
00:30:30
never knows what a person goes through
00:30:31
before ending their own life
00:30:33
but Gaurav's co-workers and friends
00:30:35
attested to the fact that he was not
00:30:36
suicidal in the time leading up to his
00:30:38
untimely death
00:30:40
on the contrary
00:30:41
he had many television projects lined up
00:30:44
he was excited to get to work he was not
00:30:46
at a loss of hope or at a dead end
00:30:48
whatsoever
00:30:50
the day before he died he posted a photo
00:30:52
of youth incorporated magazine on his
00:30:54
facebook page
00:30:55
Gaurav was on the front cover along with
00:30:57
four other successful young Indian
00:30:59
professionals in a special called power
00:31:01
of the five
00:31:03
it was Gaurav's wife and his father who
00:31:05
told police about the dark forces
00:31:06
pulling him story
00:31:08
could it be that they would rather place
00:31:09
the blame on an unexplained entity than
00:31:11
considering the possibility that he had
00:31:13
ended his own life
00:31:15
Gaurav's family was religious in hinduism
00:31:18
suicide is seen every bit as sinful as
00:31:20
taking someone else's life
00:31:22
the sanskrit word for suicide atmahatiya
00:31:26
literally means soul murder
00:31:28
it is believed that ending one's life
00:31:29
sets off a series of karmic events which
00:31:32
prevents one soul of ever resting in
00:31:34
peace
00:31:35
could it be that his family tried to
00:31:36
conceal his suicide in an attempt to
00:31:38
save his soul
00:31:40
that is not very likely Gaurav spent his
00:31:43
life solving mysteries his family would
00:31:45
not have wanted to add to the mystery of
00:31:47
his death by making things up
00:31:50
in his lifetime Gaurav was called a
00:31:52
paranormal activist
00:31:53
he knew some people believed in the
00:31:54
supernatural and others didn't
00:31:57
he never believed until his experience
00:31:58
in florida after that he dedicated his
00:32:02
life to understanding something most
00:32:03
people would instead turn their backs on
00:32:05
or dismiss as make-believe
00:32:07
he was serious about his studies and
00:32:09
listened to people when they told him
00:32:11
stories that sounded crazy to most
00:32:14
perhaps we should take a moment to
00:32:15
ponder an alternative theory and
00:32:17
consider Gaurav's account of a dark force
00:32:18
that pulled him in
00:32:20
in an interview two years before his
00:32:22
death he said
00:32:24
the more you get scared the more they
00:32:26
feed on your negative energy and get
00:32:28
stronger
00:32:29
once you show that you can face them
00:32:31
they won't trouble you
00:32:33
he spoke to his dad and wife of a dark
00:32:35
force that he struggled to keep at bay
00:32:38
paranormal investigators typically take
00:32:40
measures to protect themselves from evil
00:32:42
forces
00:32:43
there is no clear-cut guide as to what
00:32:45
would serve as protection so it comes
00:32:47
down to personal choice
00:32:49
some were satchels around their necks
00:32:50
filled with herbs or stones others say a
00:32:52
protection prayer before entering a
00:32:54
haunted house
00:32:55
Gaurav didn't do any of this
00:32:58
if you want to stay protected you have
00:33:00
to believe in yourself
00:33:02
you just have to believe that nothing
00:33:03
can harm you
00:33:04
let me tell you a secret i have been to
00:33:06
so many haunted locations in for over
00:33:09
years but i never use any protection
00:33:12
because i want to explore it's just like
00:33:15
you go on hunting an animal
00:33:17
and you wear all the protection to keep
00:33:20
him away
00:33:21
so if you don't
00:33:22
call you animals towards yourself how
00:33:24
can you hunt
00:33:26
we don't hunt ghosts i don't call myself
00:33:28
a ghost hunter though because i research
00:33:30
on them i don't go and killing down
00:33:32
close and
00:33:33
i don't flaunt like a ghost hunter it's
00:33:36
a wrong term a lot of people use but
00:33:38
it's
00:33:39
acceptable now
00:33:40
uh
00:33:41
but yeah
00:33:43
if you're in search of ghosts you should
00:33:45
always
00:33:47
see to communicate with them not to
00:33:49
escape them not to keep them away this
00:33:52
is how you can become a good researcher
00:33:54
if forensic evidence points to suicide
00:33:57
but no one has a motive why Gaurav would
00:33:58
end his life is it possible that he did
00:34:01
in fact kill himself not because he
00:34:03
meant to but because he was forced to do
00:34:05
so
00:34:06
was he visited by the darkness on that
00:34:08
morning and found himself unable to
00:34:10
control it
00:34:12
Gaurav's friend and team member of grip
00:34:14
wakaraj visited thousands of locations
00:34:16
with Gaurav it was gaurav who taught him
00:34:19
not to be scared and to stand firm
00:34:20
against unseen and unexplained energies
00:34:24
welcar quoted something Gaurav had said
00:34:26
to him in an interview with the sunday
00:34:27
guardian
00:34:29
no human can kill himself if he does he
00:34:32
must be possessed
00:34:34
some people believe it was the curse of
00:34:36
Bangor that bided its time and patiently
00:34:38
waited until Gaurav was settled in his
00:34:40
personal and professional life before it
00:34:42
struck
00:34:43
others feel that a dark hostile energy
00:34:46
attached itself to Gaurav somewhere
00:34:48
during his thousands of investigations a
00:34:50
maleficent force
00:34:52
that played its final hand
00:34:59
if you'd like to read more about this
00:35:00
case have a look at the resources used
00:35:03
for this episode in the show notes
00:35:05
also visit and like our facebook page at
00:35:07
facebook.com forward slash evidence
00:35:09
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00:35:11
case
00:35:12
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and apple podcast or wherever you are
00:35:17
listening right now
00:35:19
this was the Evidence Locker
00:35:21
thank you for listening
00:35:30
[Music]
00:35:40
[Music]
00:35:56
you
I