BARIPADA: A differently-abled woman and her brother drowned while the former was allegedly attempting to rescue him after he was swept away in the Naluha river in Khunta block of Mayurbhanj district on Friday evening.
Their bodies were retrieved by fire services personnel on Saturday morning. The deceased were identified as Nandini Naik (45) and her younger brother Parameswar Naik (32) of Malharpada village under Khunta police limits. As per police, Nandini was physically-challenged.
On Friday evening, Parameswar had gone to a canal near their house for fishing when he was allegedly swept away in the water currents. Some moments later, Nandini went to the canal site to check on him when she reportedly found Parameswar being swept away in the water currents.
Seeing him in danger, she immediately jumped into the canal in an attempt to rescue him. However unfortunately, given the force of the flowing water, both were swept away.
Locals rushed to the spot but couldn’t save the siblings due to the extreme waterflow. On being informed, the fire services personnel reached the spot but failed to trace the siblings as it had already become dark.
On Saturday morning, they resumed their search operation and eventually recovered Nandini’s body from the canal near Karkachia bridge while Parameswar’s body was retrieved one-km away from the bridge in the Naluha river.
After getting information, police reached the spot and sent the bodies to Udala sub-divisional hospital for postmortem. An unnatural death case was registered and further investigation is underway, said police.
Parameswar’s wife, who works at a private company in Chennai, was informed about the incident following which she returned home, said police.