2 deaths in 2 days at spiritual guru's school

Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh: Police in Chhindwara town on Thursday caned and threw teargas at a crowd protesting against the death of a boy at a gurukul (school) run by the asram of spiritual guru Asaram Bapu.

Vedant, 5, was found dead in the hostel bathroom on Thursday evening. He is second student to die in the school since Wednesday.

“A special team has been formed to investigate the death of children who died in Asaram Bapu's ashram in Chhindwara. Foul play is not being ruled out. Police is interrogating insiders in Asaram Bapu ashram,” DGP S K Raut told CNN-IBN.

Around 1,500 people gathered in front of the school on Parasiya Road to demand that ashram officials and Asaram Bapu be charged with murder for the deaths of Vedant and four-year-old Ramkrishna Yadav, who was found dead in a hostel toilet.

"The postmortem has already been done, we are still looking into the matter. Parents have been called up from Mumbai, and no clue has been traced by them. Investigations are on," said ASP Chhindwara, Amit Sanghi.

"Vedant’s head was in a bucket of water and he probably slipped and fell while washing himself," said Dr Lokesh Sharma, a physician at the school. He was taken to the Chhindwara district hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.

Vedant died in a bathroom adjacent to the toilet where Yadav was found dead. The school’s authorities say Yadav possibly fell down and died because of injuries.

"During the postmortem proceedings we could not find anything specific reason for his death. But can confirm that he did not die of any illnes," said Dr Subhash Bhagat, who conducted the post mortem.

The deaths in Chhindwara may further harm the ashram’s reputation. It is already fending off the controversy created by the deaths of two cousins, aged 10 and 11 years, at an ashram school in Ahmedabad.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) and Gondwana Ganatantra Party have called for a shutdown in Chhindwara on Friday. The SP demanded that Asaram Bapu be arrested for murder.

Additional District Magistrate Chandrashekhar Neelkanth has ordred a magisterial probe of Vedant’s death.