Bhopal, March 9 Two girls died from drowning while a third is feared drowned after they jumped into a canal to bathe in Parswara village, located in the Umariapan police station area of Katni district.
The girls were identified as Siddhika Lodhi, Manvi, Anshika Patel, and Ananya Patel, all residents of Parswara village. Siddhika, Manvi, and Anshika drowned in the canal.
The victims were sisters. Although villagers managed to save one of the girls, the other three were swept into deep waters.
Confirming the report, a senior police officer told IANS from Katni that one girl safely returned home while the search for another is going on.
Sadly, two of them died from drowning.
"Two bodies have been recovered, and post-mortem examinations have been conducted. The search operation for the third girl is still on," said Prabhat Shukla, Deputy Superintendent of Police, speaking to IANS from Katni over the phone.
Police and Home Guard personnel retrieved the bodies of two girls from the canal, and the search for the third continues. The four girls had gone to bathe on the right bank of Bargi dam canal but slipped into deep water, resulting in the accident.
"All of them were in the age bracket of 7-12 years," the police officer added. Police and Home Guard teams reached the scene to conduct the rescue operation, eventually retrieving the bodies of Siddhika and Anshika.
The search for Manvi is still ongoing.
Siddhika was a seventh-grade student, while her younger sister Manvi was a third-grade student. Their father, Manoj Lodhi, works as a labourer in Mumbai, and their mother is a housewife.
Anshika is a ninth-grade student, and Ananya is in the sixth grade.
When a woman saw the girls drowning in the canal, she immediately raised an alarm for help. She ran to a nearby farmer’s field, where farmer Deepchand was busy with his work.
Upon hearing the call for help, Deepchand rushed to the canal and managed to safely rescue one girl. However, the other girls were not visible to him.
He called for additional help from the villagers, who gathered at the scene and alerted police.
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