Five school students drown in Munneru in Krishna district
VIJAYAWADA: In a tragic incident, five children drowned in the Munneru Canal near Yeturu village in Chandarlapadu mandal of Krishna district. The National Disaster Response Force teams retrieved their bodies from the canal on Tuesday.
According to Nandigama DSP G Nageswara Reddy, the five children were identified as Maguluri Sunny (12), Karla Bala Yesu (12), Jatti Ajay (12), Maila Rakesh (11), and Gurajala Charan (14). While Sunny, Yesu and Ajay were in seventh grade, Rakesh was a sixth standard student and Charan was studying ninth grade.
According to their parents, who are all daily wage agricultural workers, the children were reportedly missing since Monday evening after which a search was taken up. Police said the five children left their respective homes, after having lunch around 2 pm, without informing their parents.
As they did not return home till late in the evening, their parents and relatives began looking for them and found their clothes on the banks of the canal. Nandigama police were alerted and local swimmers immediately took up search operations to trace the missing children.
On Tuesday morning, NDRF teams fished out the bodies from the canal. Based on the parents’ statement, Chandarlapadu police have registered a case of death by drowning under Section 174 of CrPC. The deceased children’s bodies were shifted to the government hospital for postmortem. A pall of gloom descended the village after the incident came to light.
Nandigama MLA Monditoka Jagan Mohana Rao visited Yeturu village and consoled the bereaved families. He also gave Rs 10,000 as financial aid to each of the bereaved family to perform the last rites.