The bodies of two brothers were retrieved from a sand mining pit along the Arani River near Uthukottai in Thiruvallur district Thursday night. Police said they didn’t register a case as the boys’ family and other villagers were against it. No postmortem was conducted either.
Hemakumar (9) and Sanjay Kumar (6) were students of Vishweshwara school near their village, police said.
After their first day of school, they reportedly went to see their grandfather in his agricultural field near Arani river Friday afternoon. After feeding them, the grandfather advised the boys to go home.
However, the boys chose to take a swim in the river first. Since they did not return home till 7 pm, their worried parents started to look for them. Later, other villagers formed a search party to trace the boys.
By 11 pm, villagers found the boys’ bodies floating in the sand mining pit.
“The villagers did not inform us, but we got a tip-off and I went to the spot,” said an officer from the Uthukottai police station. “When we went there, we found out that the boys had drowned in a puddle formed by illegal sand quarrying. It had resulted in the formation of a 15-ft deep pit due to the excess water flow. The boys had gone for a dip,” the police officer added.
“The villagers told us they didn’t want to register a case and asked us not to augment this matter. They further said that if we filed a case, they would protest. We did not interrupt the last rites of the boys, which was carried out on Friday,” the police officer said.