Bhagalpur/Begusarai: The Chhath festivities turned into a gloom, when five people, including four children, drowned in separate incidents at Bhagalpur and Begusarai on Tuesday.
At Bhagalpur, three children of a family drowned in the Ganga river.
Two other children, who also were swept by the current of the river, were luckily rescued by the local people, police said.
SDPO of Pirpainty Arjun Gupta said the incident occurred in the area falling under Ekchari police station when three women along with five children of a family went to Mohanpur Ghat to take a holy dip and offer prayers on ‘nahay-khay’—the first day of Chhath.
“While taking a bath, one of the children accidentally waded deep into the water and got caught in the strong currents.
To save him, four other kids also jumped into the river.
They all started drowning. All the kids were somehow pulled out of the water and admitted to a nearby hospital. When three were brought to the hospital, they were breathing, but they could not be saved,” the SDPO told this reporter. The deceased have been identified as Ashutosh Kumar (15), his cousins Jitendra Kumar (16) and Mausami Kumari (15). While Ashutosh and Jitendra were residents of Badi Mohanpur village, Mausami was a native of Dholbazza village in Naugachhia region of the district. She had came to her mother’s maternal home for the Chhath puja.
The police sent their bodies to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital for postmortem. After the report comes, an ex-gratia amount will be provided to the families of all the deceased, said the officials.
At Begusarai, 17-year-old Sudhanshu Kumar drowned in the Ganga at Jhamatia ghat under Bachhwara police station area of the district on Tuesday. Sudhanshu was a native of Ujiarpur police station area under Samastipur district. His uncle Nathuni Das said he along with his nephew had come to Jhamatia ghat to take a holy dip in the river. “While taking bath in the river Sudhanshu was swept away by the current of the river and drowned. His body was fished out by local divers,” he said.
In another incident, one Mohd Khalid (20) drowned in a pond at Singhaul under the same police station area of the district. Police said Khalid had set up a makeshift shop of puja materials for Chhath puja near the pond. He drowned while taking bath in the pond. A SDRF team later fished out his body.