JAGATSINGHPUR: A pall of gloom descended on Bareidia village in Biridi after two persons died due to drowning in Devi river during post-death ritual of a family member on Tuesday.
The deceased were identified as Swadesh Pal (23) and Subhanjan Pal (32), both cousins. The incident took place when family members of deceased BSF jawan Satyajit Pal were performing his 10th day death ritual near Devi river. Satyajit (34) had died in a road mishap on October 18.
Sources said after performing Satyajit’s death rituals, around 15-20 family members entered the river to take bath. However, two of them slipped into deep water and started drowning. Four other family members tried to rescue them but all of them were swept away by the strong river current. Hearing their screams, locals jumped into the river and managed to rescue four of them. However, Swadesh and Subhanjan went missing.
Villagers launched a search and after around three hours, managed to rescue the duo. They were rushed to nearby Adasapur hospital where the doctor declared them brought dead. Sources said condition of another family member Jagat Pal is serious and he has been admitted to Adaspur hospital.
Fire officer of Biridi Ashok Kumar Satpathy said on being informed about the incident, fire services personnel from Jagatsinghpur, Biridi and Adaspur rushed to the spot. “However, villagers had already retrieved the bodies of the two youths from the river before our arrival,” he added.As news of the tragic incident spread, a large number of people gathered at Bareidia village to console the grief-stricken Pal family.
Satyajit, who was deployed at BSF’s 145 Battalion in Kolkata, had come to his native village on leave earlier this month. On October 8, he was returning to Bareidia from Bhubaneswar when his bike met with an accident at Chaupada chowk in Cuttack’s Govindpur area. He was killed on the spot.