india

Updated: Jul 30, 2015 01:23 IST

The range of likely reasons behind the mystery deaths associated with the Vyapam scam is becoming curious, with a government statement stating alcoholism, liver disease and failed love as possible causes.

Of the 40 deaths so far, official reasons cited for 25 show three men between 23-29 years died of excessive drinking, a 40-year-old doctor of liver failure reportedly caused by alcohol abuse, and a woman in the 32-35 bracket due to liver cancer. Two young men are said to have committed suicide due to failed love.

“There was nothing suspicious about these deaths,” Gwalior additional superintendent of police (ASP) Virendra Jain said. In none of these cases did family members raise any suspicion over the deaths, the statement said.

But the CBI lodged a murder case in one of these deaths and launched a preliminary enquiry (PE) in another six over the past two weeks, official statements by the agency said.

The death of 19-year-old medical student Namrata Damor (not mentioned in the government list) was also passed off as "suicide due to failed love affair" by Ujjain police before the CBI lodged a murder case last week. “It was not a suicide, there was no love affair,” Namrata’s brother, Omprakash Damor, said.

Enquiries by HT did not yield any documentary evidence to prove the causes of death as mentioned in any of the cases. No postmortem report could be gathered related to any of the deaths, except Damor’s.