DEHRADUN: Actor Sonu Sood has adopted four daughters of a man who lost his life in February 7 flash floods in Uttarakhand.
Alam Singh Pundir (45), who worked as an electrician in the Tapovan Hydropower project, lost his life leaving his wife and four daughters behind at Loyaal village of Tehri district.
Residents of the village confirmed the development of The New Indian Express. Hukum Singh Bhandari, a resident of the village and former village pradhan said, "We have received the assurance from Shri Sonu Sood's team that he will be bearing the expenses related to education and livelihood of the family now. Our blessings and well wishes to the man."
The deceased has four daughters -- Anchal (14), Antara (11), Kajal (8), and Ananya (2). The family members of the deceased thanked the actor.
Sarojini Devi, wife of Pundir said, "The flash floods took the father of my children and left us nowhere. Sonuji came forward as the Godfather to nurture my children. I am grateful for his gesture of saving me from further descending into the dark abyss."
The cinestar also tweeted saying that the family is his own from now onwards.
The move apparently came after an owner of regional Hindi news channel Umesh Kumar approached the actor and appealed to him to help the family.
Meanwhile, search operations are on to locate 144 missing persons at various locations including Tapovan and Raini.
State DGP Ashok Kumar said, "A total of 62 bodies and 28 body parts have been recovered till now. Rescue and search operations are underway at many places including five places where the probability of finding the missing ones is high."
The DNA samples of 96 family members of missing persons and 73 bodies and body parts have been collected for further identification.
Director-General of ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) SS Deswal has visited Raini village and Tapovan in Chamoli district to review the ground situation on the ground. Deswal also did an aerial recce of the lake formed 8 km upstream from Raini village.