Three bodies recovered, search for another on

VARANASI: Around 18 hours after a boat capsized in river Ganga here, NDRF and Jal police personnel on Monday recovered three bodies while search for the fourth one was still underway, said police. They said including boatman there were 14 people on the boat and 10 of them had been rescued.

“NDRF and Jal police with the help of local divers recovered three bodies from the Ganga on Monday. Search operation is on to recover the body of one Abhishek,” said circle officer Bhelupur, Chakrapani Tripathi. Tripathi said that the boatman initially informed that there were only 11 persons on the boat but later it was learnt that there were 14 people onboard. “The boatman gave wrong information. But it has now become clear that there were 14 people, including 13 passengers and a boatman, on the boat,” he said. According to the police, on Sunday morning five friends including, Saumya,

Vishal Sonkar, Abhishek Sonkar and Vishal Singh, and one more girl, all residents of Varansai, had gone across the Ganga. In the evening, they boarded a boat to cross the river. Before the boat started, more than five people boarded it. As the boat reached in the middle of Ganga, a youth stood up and started taking selfie and the boat got disbalanced. Police said, NDRF and Jal police rescued 10 people. Till Sunday evening, two persons, including Vishal Singh and Abhishek Maurya were missing. On Monday when search resumed the body of Vishal (23) was recovered from the river while the body of another youth Junaid was recovered later. Moreover, it came to light that Junaid’s friend Shahnawaj had also gone across the Ganga on Sunday evening and missing since then.

The rescue team again started the search and recovered the body of Shahnawaj on Monday.