Pilgrimage to a dargah turned fatal for four members of a family, including three children, as they drowned in Manjira, a tributary of Godavari river, at Birkur village of Kamareddy district, around 200 km from here, on Friday.
The victims were identified as Anjavva (45), her daughter Sony (8) and her co-sister’s children, Gangothri (12) and Prashanth (09), all residents of Shetloor village in Bichkunda mandal.
Police said the victims boarded a passenger auto-rickshaw to reach Birkur and from there, they decided to cross the river to avoid taking the Manjira bridge, which is a long route on foot. “At a certain point, water flow was high due to the recent downpour and they drowned,” a police official informed.
After learning about the incident, other family members along with villagers and police started searching for the victims, but in vain. Around 7.30 a.m. on Saturday, the swimmers retrieved three bodies. By 10.30 a.m., the fourth one was also fished out from the river.
They were taken to a government hospital where doctors pronounced them dead and performed an autopsy before handing over the bodies to the family members for last rites.
