DROWNING: Gloom Around River Godavari As 7 Bodies Of Teenagers Recovered
The deaths occurred on Monday. District collector Mahesh Kumar said the search operations were called off by evening amid a fall of darkness in the river.
Kakinada:Gloom enveloped the banks of River Godavari, as bodies of seven teenagers who died in a mishap at Kaminilanka village in Mummidivaram mandal of BR Konaseema District were recovered by NDRF and Police personnel on Tuesday.
The body of the eighth teenager was yet to be found. The deaths occurred on Monday. District collector Mahesh Kumar said the search operations were called off by evening amid a fall of darkness in the river. The search would be resumed on Wednesday to recover the body of the eighth teenager, Kranthi.
They were part of an11-member team of friends who went to Serilanka village in K Gangavaram mandal to attend a family event. They went for a swim to the Vridha Gowthami-Godavari river, where three branches of the river merged in Kaminilanka village.
Three of the teenagers sensed dangers and rushed back to the shore and informed the villagers. Police and senior officials rushed to the spot and led the search for the missing teenagers. The recovered bodies were shifted to the community health centre at Ummidivaram for post-mortem.
Grief gripped the area and the CHC as the parents, relatives and the villagers were crying and wailing with their children. Two families lost two each of their children.
Sabbathi Ramesh was a pastor at Jagannadhapuram in Kakinada. His two sons-- Kranthi Kiran studying degree final year and Paul Abhishek studying second-year degree course went missing in the river.
Paul Abhishek's body was recovered and Kranthi’s was yet to be found. Ramesh said their two sons went to the village by 10am. He tried to phone them by 3pmAfter repeated calls, the village sarpanch lifted the call and told him to rush to the village along with his wife. “Ì reached the village with high tension.”
Yalamarthi Sai Mahesh (18) was studying physiotherapy in Ongole. His father Prasad of Turangi in Kakinada Rural mandal said he had two sons. Sai Mahesh came to Kakinada recently and went to Kaminilanka village on Monday and met with a watery grave.
Vaddi Rajesh (14) and Vaddi Mahesh of Yerragaruvu village were studying at the Bhimanapalli residential school. His mother Bhavani went to Kuwait. His father Bhyrava Swamy said he is raising them with great affection, but he lost his two sons.
Tatipudi Raju is an auto driver. He had two daughters and one son -- Nithish Kumar (18). He admitted his two daughters to a government school and his son to a private school. Nitish Kumar was doing a course in animation.
Another victim, Pulapaka Rohit's parents were no more and his maternal uncle and aunt were raising him. Sujatha and Govinda Raju said Rohit and his sister Bindu Madhavi were raising Rohit.
The body of Elipe Mahesh (14) of Serilanka village was also recovered by the search teams.