Teacher’s Tube ‘suicide jump’

7:30am Friday 16th May 2008

A Hounslow school teacher has died in a suspected suicide at Osterley station.

Lampton School tutor Savraj Powar, 43, was hit by an east-bound Piccadilly line train at the station at 9.15am on Tuesday in front of a crowd of commuters.

Mr Powar had been suspended from his post at the secondary school for "inappropriate conduct" and was due to be arrested that morning.

An air ambulance attended, but Mr Powar could not be resuscitated and was pronounced dead at the scene. His car was found in the station's car park.

A spokesman for British Transport Police said the incident was not being treated as suspicious.

The dad-of-two shared an impressive gated home with his wife and family in affluent Osterley.

A Hounslow police spokesman said: "Officers went to the address that morning to arrest Mr Powar, but he left in a car and it was established he had fallen under a train."

Mr Powar was being investigated by Hounslow's Child Protection Team on suspicion of inappropriate conduct with a pupil at his school.

A man outside the property yesterday morning, Thursday, May 15, who said he was "very close to the family" declined to comment on the allegations and said the family "just wanted privacy in this time of tragedy".

Last month Mr Powar was found in the car park of the Hare and Hounds pub in Windmill Lane, Isleworth, with five knife wounds to his neck and doctors said he was lucky to be alive.

At the time a police spokesman said unofficially that the attack might have been self-inflicted as a way of shifting attention from a situation in the victim's professional life.

Police now suspect it was an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

On Tuesday morning the station was emptied and shut for two hours as police dealt with the incident.

An employee of David Ibbotson estate agents, located inside the station entrance, said she watched the body being carried out of the station. "Two poor young girls in their 20s witnessed it.

"And what the train driver must be going through I can only imagine."

She added: "It was absolutely horrific, but the police handled it so efficiently and had the station back open by 11.20am."

A Hounslow Council spokesman would not confirm the allegations, but said: "The school was informed late on Tuesday of the death of a member of staff following an incident at Osterley Tube station.

"The school extends its deepest sympathy to his wife and two sons."

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