Six, including four of a family, drown in Cauvery river in Namakkal

NAMAKKAL: Six people, including four of a family, drowned in the Cauvery near Paramathi-Velur in Namakkal district on Tuesday.
The deceased were identified as K Saravanan, 43, of Pothanur, his wife Jothimani, 40, their twin sons Dharakesh, 10, Deebesh, 10, and Jothimani’s friend Devishree, 33, and her daughter Ashvika, 8. They all went to take bath in the river along with Saravanan’s nephew Rohith.

Jothimani went too deep into the river with her husband Saravanan. “Jothimani was the first to be washed away as she could not withstand the water current,” the Paramathi-Velur police said.

Saravanan also drowned when he attempted to save his wife. Witnessing their plight, Devishree, Asvika, Dharakesh and Deebesh went deep into the river to rescue them. “But even they were washed away in the water current,” the police said, adding that Rohith did not enter the water as he didn’t know how to swim.

Rohith alerted his father and Saravanan’s brother Dhanasekaran over phone, following which they rushed to the spot with Paramathi-Velur police and fire and rescue services personnel.

Meanwhile, Namakkal MP P R Sundaram, collector cum returning officer Asia Mariam, SP R Arularasu also reached the spot and monitored the rescue operations.

The fire and rescue services personnel retrieved five bodies from the river. Asvika’s body could not be found.

A case was registered by Paramathi-Velur police and further investigation is on. The bodies were sent to the Paramathi-Velur government hospital for postmortem. Expressing grief over the deaths, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced Rs 1 lakh compensation to the families of the deceased.