Asaram school death report handed to court

GANDHINAGAR - The state CID department Wednesday handed over its report to the Gujarat High Court on the death of two children who went missing from the Asaram Ashram residential school in Ahmedabad about two years ago and were subsequently found dead.

The high court which has scheduled the next hearing of the case April 29 is expected to decide by then whether the investigation should be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or not.

Praful Vaghela, father of the deceased children - Dipak and Abhishek - had filed a petition in the high court requesting a CBI inquiry into the case alleging that CID was not investigating the case properly.

Abhishek and Dipak went missing from a residential school of the Asaram Ashram in Ahmedabad in April 2008.

A few days later their mutilated bodies were found from the Sabarmati riverbed behind the ashram.

The issue kicked up a public furore that led to outrage and violence. The parents have alleged that their children became guinea pigs in a ‘tantra sadhana’ experiment in the ashram. Following the public outcry, the case was handed over to the CID, which after a year of probing, filed a complaint of culpable homicide and booked seven sadhaks of the ashram.

The seven accused sadhaks, however, moved for anticipatory bail in the sessions court which was subsequently rejected. The state CID (crime) Wednesday submitted its report along with the investigating officer’s affidavit.

The CID, in its report, has stated that Dipesh and Abhishek may have died because of drowning as per their post mortem examination report. However, the report mentioned that the accused had lied in their lie detection test about the ashram’s activities related to tantra sadhna and black magic.