12-year-old drowns during festival bath in Srisailam

Tirupati: The Mahasivaratri festivities ended on a tragic note for a family who reached Srisailam in Nandyal district on Sunday. According to the local police, M Saluvappa and his family from Thumbalabeedu in Alur mandal of Kurnool district came to Srisailam for darshan of Sri Mallikarjuna Swamy on the auspicious Mahasivaratri festival eve. When other family members were engrossed in some work, their 12-year-old son, M Siddhartha, went for a sacred bath at a local water tank and drowned to death. Though the family members tried to rescue the 12-year-old, he was already dead by the time he was brought out of the water tank.The bereaved family made arrangements to shift Siddhartha's body to his native village, Thumbalabeedu, to perform his final rites.