Mathura, Dec 25: Two women devotees, both above 60 years of age, who reached Vrindavan for ‘darshan’ at Banke Bihari Temple in Uttar Pradesh's Mathura died "due to illness", officials said on Monday.

The two women died on Sunday. One woman was from Sitapur (Uttar Pradesh) and the other from Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh). They died at two different spots at different times.

The Mathura police denied that the two deaths were due to crowd pressure at the temple.

However, sources said that both the women complained of uneasiness inside the temple and were taken to a hospital where they died.

Meanwhile, SSP Mathura Shailesh Pandey appealed to the aged, ill or young to not visit the temple at this time of the year when the footfall increases a lot.

The turnout in Mathura and Vrindavan rises substantially at the year's end. It is expected to rise further in the new year as devotees prefer an auspicious beginning of the year.

On Saturday, the number of devotees at Banke Bihari Temple was in lakhs and remained so on Sunday.

The passage towards the temple was chock-a-block.

“Police deny that the deaths were an outcome of crowd mismanagement. These two women died at different times at different places which were away from the temple premises,” said Pandey.

The SSP claimed that both women were above 60 years of age and had health issues.

The cause of deaths was presumably illness. They were shifted to hospital in Vrindavan but could not be saved. The family members have informed us that both had a history of illness,” he said.

IANS

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