Woman jumps into Ganga with kids, 2 drown

TNN | Apr 13, 2020, 04:01 IST

Varanasi: Two girls were killed while their three younger siblings were feared drowned after their mother Manju (36) jumped into river Ganga with them in Bhadohi district on Sunday morning.
However, Manju managed to swim to the river banks and was saved. Police had engaged divers to search the children. SP Bhadohi RB Singh said that family dispute is being suspected as reason behind the woman’s attempt to commit suicide along with her children. Further investigation is in progress, he added
Police said that Manju of Jahagirabad area under Gopiganj police station area reached near river with her children —Shiv Shankar (6), Keshav (3), Aarti (11), Saraswati (7) and Mateshwari (5). She asked all of them to jump into the river with her and the children followed her instructions.
Manju swimmed to the river banks and sat there. Some villagers, who reached there and sought the reason of her sitting there when she divulged that she has drowned her children. Alarmed over hearing it, locals alerted police. After reaching the spot Gopiganj police immediately engaged the local divers to search for the missing children.
After exercising hard till late afternoon, the divers fished out the bodies of Aarti and Saraswati while Mateshwari, Shiv and Keshav were still missing, said SP Bhadohi. He said that as the current in water of Ganga is high due to rise in water level, divers faced problems in the search operation despite using giant nets.
Initial investigation revealed that Manju had some dispute with her husband Mridul Yadav, who had left home two days ago with his friend. He returned on Sunday morning after the incident had occurred. Police suspect family dispute to be the reason behind the incident.