Gujarat government gets court notice on Asaram school deaths

Ahmedabad, May 2 (IANS) The Gujarat High Court Saturday served a show cause notice to the state government, asking why the probe into the mysterious deaths of two boys at a boarding school run by spiritual leader Asaram Bapu here should not be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The bodies of the Abhishek Vaghela, 11, and Dipesh Vaghela, 10, were found on the Sabarmati river bank, a few yards away from Asaram Bapu's school, on July 5, 2008.

The boys were reported missing by the school authorities five days before the discovery of the bodies.

Parents of both the boys had alleged that they had been killed in Asaram Bapu's ashram as part of some occult ritual and then the bodies dumped in the river bed. The accusations were followed by public outcry and violent protests against the spiritual guru.

S.H. Iyer, counsel for the boys' families, told IANS that the court took objection to the state government setting up an inquiry commission headed by retired Justice B.K. Trivedi and asked the government why the case should not be probed by the CBI.

In its notice, the court said that it had asked the government to institute a direct investigation into the deaths and not set up an inquiry commission.

The local police have not been able to make any headway in the case so far apart from questioning the witness who first saw the decomposed bodies of the two boys on the river bank.