Bath in Ganga turns fatal as three drown in Patna, two teens rescued

Patna: Three people, including two teenagers, drowned in the Ganga river at Gandhi Ghat under Pirbahore police station area in the state capital on Tuesday morning, while two others were rescued.The deceased were identified as Chandan Kumar (34), son of Om Prakash Gupta, and resident of Dariyapur Gola in Kadamkuan area; Amit Kumar (17), son of Ranjit Kumar, resident of RMS Colony, Kankarbagh; and Samar Pratap (14), son of Shashi Ranjan, resident of Baisa, Khagaria district. Samar used to stay in Patna’s Ashok Nagar.The two rescued persons include Amit’s cousin Joy (16) and another teenager—both residents of Kankarbagh’s RMS Colony.The incident took place around 9am, when five people were taking bath in the river. According to eyewitnesses, one of them ventured deep into the water and started drowning. To save him, the others entered into deep water and got caught in the tide.Prompt action taken by the district administration, with boatmen and the SDRF team, saved two teens. The bodies of the remaining three were fished out from the river and handed over to their families after necessary formalities and the postmortem.Patna district magistrate Thiyagarajan SM said: “Five youths started drowning in the Ganga river at Gandhi Ghat. The district administration acted swiftly and with the help of SDRF rescued two teenagers. The circle officer and sub-divisional officer, Patna Sadar, have been directed to provide all possible assistance to the affected families at the earliest as per the laid down provisions.”Additional SHO of Pirbahore police station, Madhurendra Kumar, said the SDRF team was engaged in searching the body of a man, who jumped into the Ganga river from Marine Drive late Monday night. “As soon as we recovered the body, the police received the information about another tragedy at Gandhi Ghat. The team immediately rushed to the ghat, however, three people could not be saved,” he said.