7 meet watery grave in Central district

It is said, A Andrew Jose (19), of Valluvar nagar near Tiruchy Airport, an engineering student of Coimbatore was returning to his native place on Wednesday, Andrew along with 11 of his friends - Ismail (21), Saddam Hussain alais Shahul Hameed (24), Siva (23), Subash (18), Devaraj (18), Vishnu (19), Nagaraj (22), Siva Gurunathan (30), Dharmasasta (18), Nelson Mandela (20) and Haruharan (22) - went to Kallanai. 

While, returning, they bathed at the Panayapuram canal on Thiruvanaikoil road. Later, they went to Thiruvalarsolai and halted at Ponni Delta area. Andrew Jose, Ismail, Siva Gurnathan and Saddam Hussain stepped into the Cauvery there to bathe again. Water level in the river was just hipdeep. But, the four got caught in a pit and began to drown. Though the others began screaming for help, they could not rescue them. On hearing their cries, neighbours too attempted to help, but in vain.

Soon, the friends, informed the Srirangam police and the fire and rescue personnel who rushed to the spot and resumed a search operation. On Wednesday, the team recovered the bodies of Andrew Jose and Ismail. Since it became dark, rescue operations were put on hold. 

On Thursday, the team retrieved the body of Saddam Hussain and Siva Gurunathan at Uthamaraseeli area in the evening. They were sent to the GH for post mortem. 

Meanwhile, in Karur, Sakthivel (39), a resident of Kodayur in Aravakurichi along with his son Kathiresan (9) and daughter Karthika went to take bath in the Amaravati river on Wednesday. Little by little Kathiresan went deep into the river and drowned. On seeing him drowning, Sakthivel jumped into the water and attempted to rescue him, but both drowned. 

Similarly, in Nagapattinam, B Balaguru (13), a Class 9 student of Mayiladuthurai went along with his father Baskaran to bathe in the Cauvery. All of a sudden, Balaguru who dragged into the middle of the river and he drowned. On information, the Mayiladuthurai police rushed to the spot recovered his the body. 

Two boys, aged 12 and 15 drowned in a pond in Kuniamuthur on Deepavali. Police said S Praveen Kumar (15) from RK Pudur and Vigneshwaran (12), of Sundakkamuthur had gone to ‘Sengulam’ along with their friends on Wednesday evening. They had ventured into deep waters and drowned. Efforts by friends to save them also turned futile. “Local people retrieved the body of Praveen Kumar, while the body of Vigneshwaran could not be found,” police said.

Later, fire and rescue personnel fished out his body. The bodies have been sent for a post-mortem. Meanwhile, in Vellore, Janani (11) of Ambur, Elumalai(22) and Nandagopal (28) both of villages near Vaniyambadi drowned in the Palar on Thursday. Fire service personnel recovered the bodies.