• Source:JND

Thirty-one devotees drowned in Badaun and Bareilly on Monday while bathing on the occasion of Ganga Dussehra. Seven of them died, and a girl is missing in the water.

The rest of the victims were rescued after divers intervened on time. In Badaun, District Magistrate Avinash Rai and SSP Ankita Sharma reached the Ganga Ghat and appealed to people not to venture into deep waters, a call ignored by many.

At eight in the morning, Omveer, a resident of Kanau village in Hathras, arrived in Kachla with his son Nilesh and relatives. They were bathing in the Ganga in a secluded spot about a kilometre from the main ghat.

While taking holy dips, Nilesh, Vikas, four-year-old Krishna, Nilesh's aunt Shalini, 10-year-old Shikha, and relative Rohit started drowning in the deep waters. Boatmen and divers Sarwan, Jabir, Anil, Nazir, and Saddam immediately jumped into the Ganga to help.

While they rescued Vikas, Krishna, and Shalini safely, the bodies of Nilesh and Rohit were recovered in the evening. Shikha was still missing, and teams continued searching for her until late in the evening.

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Rajkumar and Suraj, residents of Sirsa Dabrai village, also lost control in deep waters at Kachla Ghat. Divers Anil and Fazle rescued Suraj, but Rajkumar died.

In another incident, Pintu, a resident of Hussainpur in UP's Mainpuri, drowned at the Ateena Ghat. Responding to the cries of his brother Ajay, the station in charge, Devendra Singh, dispatched divers who later found Pintu's body.

Another man, named Anupam, a resident of Newnaihra village in UP's Farrukhabad, drowned at around 3 PM while he was bathing with his maternal uncle Jitendra.

He drowned while he was trying to swim to the other side, but was caught in a whirlpool.

Boys drownwed in Bareilly

Two boys were also drowned in the Bahgul River in Gulabnagar village, Bareilly. A 14-year-old boy named Aditya Thakur, a resident of Faridpur town, started drowning in the river. Abhishek, a resident of Binawar in Badaun, rushed to his rescue. He too went into the deep water. The bodies of both were recovered after an hour and a half.

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23 rescued

Out of a total of 31 people, 23 were rescued while 7 died, and a girl was missing. Among those rescued were Badaun, Hathras residents Ramkesh, Anand Kumar, Premshankar, Hrithik, Roshanlal, Rani and Pinky from Moradabad district, Nandkishore, Pyari Devi, Gaurav Patel, Shobhit Srivastava, Ratan Lal, Nahar Singh, and Rajiv Ranjan from Rajasthan, and Sikanderpur residents Akash Tiwari, Prakash, and Munni Devi in Etah district, and Anita Devi and Prince Rajput from Musajhag


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