The police and medical officials have called the death of the four boys as ``a simple case of asphyxiation, of death due to drowning.'' As for the marks on the bodies, the doctor who conducted the autopsy says these marks were inflicted after death, possibly the handiwork of crabs nibbling away at the bodies as they lay in the pond.

But residents of Shirasgaon will have none of it. They are not buying an explanation so simple. ``It was no accident as the police would want everyone to believe. The children were murdered,'' maintains Laxman Yadav, uncle of the boys. Ditto, say villagers who are now demanding a CID probe into the incident.

But Dr Madhavi Raje, medical officer at the Shrirampur municipal council dispensary, who performed the post-mortem tests, told The Indian Express that this was a case of death due to drowning. ``The wounds found on the bodies were all superficial, caused by bites of some aquatic creatures,'' she maintained. Even the Shrirampur unit of the Superstitions Eradication Committee issued a statement, saying the Shirasgaon deaths were merely an accident and involved no witchcraft.

It all began when the bodies of four boys, aged between 6 and 12, were fished out from a pond late Monday evening. Somebody noticed that there were scratches on the limbs and minor cuts on the boys' privies, ears and eyelids. The word spread and a horror story was scripted overnight by a village not just fearful but very suspicious.

Laxman Yadav says that the boys -- Pramod, Vinod, Sagar and Sunil -- went missing Monday afternoon. When he and others went in search of the boys, they saw a head bobbing in the pond. ``It was Sunil,'' recalls Laxman. As they fished out the body, they discovered the other three. The boys' clothes were found on the pond banks while a shirt was hanging from a nearby babhul tree.

Shrirampur Deputy Superintendent of Police Madhav Tambade doesn't want to jump to any conclusion. ``We don't want to take a chance. We are exploring all possible angles to the case,'' Tambade says. But a press release from the office of the Ahmednagar Superintendent of Police notes that the incident has been registered as an accident by the Shrirampur police.

Word on Shirasgaon has spread. And so has the horror story. Union minister Balasaheb Vikhe-Patil and Maharashtra minister Balasaheb Thorat have already visited the village.