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At least four girls drowned while bathing in a pond during Jitiya festival rituals in Bankat Nuniya Toli under Paharpur police station limits in East Champaran, Sadar Hospital, Motihari hospital manager Kaushal Kishore Dubey said.
Five girls who had gone to the pond with their families to take a bath started drowning in the deep water. Local villagers managed to rescue one girl, while four others died. The villagers pulled the bodies out of the pond. After receiving information about the incident, police reached the spot and sent the bodies of the deceased girls to Sadar Hospital for post-mortem. Women from Bankat Nuniya Toli had gone to the pond to take a bath on the occasion of Jitiya. Children from their families also accompanied them. During the bathing, five girls started drowning, following which people raised an alarm. Some villagers then entered the pond to rescue the girls. However, they could save only one girl, while four girls died due to drowning. Two of the deceased girls were sisters. Sadar Hospital Motihari hospital manager Dubey said that four girls had died due to drowning in Bankat under Paharpur police station's jurisdiction. After the post-mortem examination, their bodies were handed over to their respective families. The deceased have been identified as 12-year-old Sonomati Kumari and her 10-year-old sister Phulm ati Kumari, daughters of Pramod Mahto of Bankat Nuniya Toli; 11-year-old Sonali Kumari, daughter of Virendra Mahto; and 10-year-old Pratima Kumari, daughter of Achhelal Paswan. Describing the traumatising incident, Mahto said that the girls had gone to the pond along with the women of the family. Some children from the village entered the pond to bathe, during which five girls started drowning. One of them could be rescued, while four girls, including his two daughters, died due to drowning. "Here in Bachhwara, the water levels were very high. While the children were out, they drowned in it; there were 4 children in total, and two of them were ours... One child ran back screaming that they had drowned, and that alerted the villagers," Mahto said. Meanwhile, local LJP (Ram Vilas) MLA and national vice-president of the party, Raju Tiwari, also reached Sadar Hospital and consoled the families of the deceased girls. Tiwari called the incident unfortunate and demanded that the district administration provide the affected families with financial assistance from the Disaster Relief Fund at the earliest. (ANI)
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