Bengaluru: Four boys drowned after they snuck out of their orphanage and went for a swim at a lake, nearly a kilometre away from their hostel in Kanajenahalli Gate in Rangasthala in Chikkaballapura on Monday. The deceased have been identfied as Yeshwanth (10), Narasimhamurthy (16), and two brothers Aadhi and Ajay, 10 to 12 years of age, the police said. The police have arrested the supervisor, Shivu (32) of Manasa Orphanage, run by Dr. Madhukar Hossur.
“It was a heart-wrenching to see the bodies of the children, who were holding each others’ hands even in their death,” said a senior police officer. Aadhi and Ajay were admitted to the orphanage only 10 days ago as their father who worked in a bar always quarreled with their mother. Their mother got them admitted to the orphanage with the help of Child Welfare Committee (CWC) for their education, the police said. The two boys were from Manchenahalli village in Chikkaballapura, while Narasimhamurthy was from Madhugiri in Tumakuru. The police were yet to ascertain where Yeshwanth hailed from.
The boys, after having lunch, sneaked out of the orphanage around 2 pm on Monday and went to the lake for the swim. One of them might have started drowning and the others would have tried to rescue them, the police said.
The Manasa Hostel staff realised that the boys were missing and started looking for them in nearby areas. A few boys in the neighbourhood told them that they saw the four boys heading towards the lake. The staff members saw boys’ cloths on the lakebed and asked swimmers from the village to rescue the boys. But by then it was too late.
The bodies were fished out around 5.30 pm and the orphanage staff informed the police. “We suspect that the boys drowned between 2 pm and 2.30 pm,” said the senior police officer who visited the spot. The bodies were shifted to Chikkaballapur Government Hospital for the postmortem. The deputy commissioner visited the spot. The orphanage supervisor, Shivu, who was arrested by the police, was booked under Section 304-A, causing death due to negligence. Further investigations are underway.
