The incidents spread panic among Sri Aurobindo Ashram devotees tourists and residents alike

A day after five sisters were evicted from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram-run Ambabhikshu apartments, on a Supreme Court directive, two of the sisters and their mother ended their lives on Wednesday in an alleged family suicide bid by drowning themselves in the sea near here.

They were identified as the siblings Arunashree, 50, and Rajashree, 45, and their mother Shanthi Devi, 65.

Shanthi Devis husband Gadhadhar Prasad, 70, and the other sisters Jayashree Prasad, 54, Nivedita Prasad, 42, and Hemalata Prasad, 40, were saved by fishermen who were returning to the shore. They were rushed to the Puducherry Government General Hospital.

The incident sparked protests, and the Ashram came under attack by miscreants. A few outfits have called a bandh for Saturday and demanded that the government take over the Ashram.

Police sources said the sisters, along with their parents who were staying in Captain Marius Xavier Street, boarded a bus to Kalapet in the early hours of Thursday. Eyewitnesses said the seven-member family was seen walking towards the beach. Shortly thereafter, a group of fishermen returning to the shore sighted them struggling in the waters and rescued four. The bodies washed ashore at Chinna Mudaliyar Chavady and Thantharayankuppam.

The incident brought to a tragic end the Ashrams legal battle, dating back to 2002, to evict the sisters for misconduct. The Madras High Court had upheld the Ashrams right to initiate disciplinary action, which the sisters challenged in the Supreme Court. On December 9, the Supreme Court directed the sisters to vacate the premises within seven days. It asked the jurisdictional police station (All Mahila police station, Puducherry) to evict them from the Ambabhikshu House if they failed to comply with the order.

TIMELINE OF A TRAGEDY

At 12.30 pm, a group of persons sporting black shirts pelted stones at glass panels of petrol bunk owned by Sri Aurobindo Ashram at Ambour Road. They even attacked some of machines and glass panels of office.

A host of outfits and civil society organisations have called for a dawn-to-dusk bandh on December 20 demanding that the Union and Puducherry governments should intervene and take over Sri Aurobindo Ashram.

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Death of Puducherry sisters sparks violence