A day after a child died under mysterious circumstances in a Chhindwara gurukul run by the Asaram Bapu ashram, a five-year-old boy was found dead in similar conditions at the same school today, triggering protests by local residents who demanded the closure of the gurukul and the arrest of the sect leader.

The back-to-back incidents come close on the heels of the discovery of bodies of two boys of the sect’s Ahmedabad gurukul which triggered violence, bandhs and forced the Gujarat government to order a probe.

Vedang Manmode, a 5-year-old from Pune who had joined the gurukul on Parasia Road in Chhindwara only a month ago, was found lying in a bathroom around 6 pm by an 11-year-old. He was taken to hospital but was declared dead-on-arrival. A day earlier, four-and-half-year-old Ramkrishna Yadav from Mumbai was found dead in almost identical conditions — he too was found lying on the bathroom floor and declared dead-on-arrival at the hospital.

In both cases, there were no external marks on the bodies. In Ramkrishna’s case, the police had virtually given the ashram a clean chit, saying the post-mortem report did not pinpoint the cause of death. Since the report was inconclusive, the viscera was being sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Sagar.

But DIG (Chhindwara) K Vaifai told The Indian Express that the two deaths in succession had raised doubts and the police would question every employee of the ashram. He said over 400 villagers had gathered outside the ashram, demanding its immediate closure. Tyres were burnt and stones pelted as news of the second death spread.

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