3 of family drown as car falls into canal

WHEN THE car was near Kattekunta village, the driver failed to control the wheel and fell into the SRSP canal.

In a tragic incident that occurred in the early hours of Monday, three members of a family died and one sustained minor injuries when the car they were travelling in fell in the Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) canal at Medipally.

The deceased were identified as advocate Katkaneni Amerandar Rao (58), resident of Housing board colony here, his wife Shirisha (52) and daughter Shreya (25).

Amerander’s son Jayanth survived with minor injuries.

According to police, the four were going to their native Joginipally village for taking part in celebrations organised in the village temple.

When the car was near Kattekunta village, the driver failed to control the wheel and fell into the

SRSP canal. Jayanth, who was driving the car, managed to open the door and swam to safety in the canal. The remaining three struck in the car were swept away by the heavy flow of water.

Jayanth after coming out of the canal informed the locals who in turn conveyed the information to the officials police and revenue department. They tried to retrieve the car from the canal.

Although a crane did bring out the vehicle, the other three died of suffocation.

The police sent the bodies to the government main hospital for postmortem and started investigation by registering the case.

Amerandar was a relative of TRS party’s Jagtial MLA, Dr Sanjay Kumar. Having learnt about the accident, the MLA along with district collector, G. Ravi, district superintendent of police Sindhu Sharma and additional collector B. Rajesham visited the hospital and consoled Jayanth.

Shreya was engaged recently.