Post-school fun turns fatal, 3 kids drown in river in Chhattisgarh's Janjgir-Champa district

Janjgir (Chhattisgarh), Dec 11 (PTI) Three children, aged between 11-15 years, drowned while bathing in the Hasdeo river in Chhattisgarh's Janjgir-Champa district, officials said on Thursday.

The bodies of Nelson Lakra (15), Yuvraj Rathore (14), and Rudra Singh Raj (11) were recovered from the river near Tridev Ghat in the morning by a team of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local police, a police official said.

The trio, students of different classes in a private school in Jagdalla Colony in Champa town, went to the river for bathing without informing their family members after their school got over on Wednesday, he said.

When they did not return home for long, their family members got worried and launched a frantic search for them. Their bicycles, clothes and other belongings were found along the riverbank at Tridev Ghat on Wednesday evening following which police were alerted, the official said.

Suspecting drowning, Champa police, SDRF personnel and local administration launched an operation to locate the students in the river, he stated.

The river's flow was temporarily controlled to aid the search operation. The rescue effort, halted due to darkness on Wednesday night, resumed at dawn on Thursday and the bodies of the missing minors were recovered, he said.

Prima facie, it seems the children waded out into deeper waters while bathing and drowned, he said.

Champa Sub-Divisional Magistrate Pawan Kosma informed that the kin of each of the deceased children will be provided a compensation of Rs 4 lakh as per government rules. PTI TKP RSY