ERODE: A 45-year-old man drowned while crossing the Cauvery near Bargur on Sunday to bypass the police checkpost to enter Tamil Nadu from Karnataka.
E Perumal (45) was a native of Marugampatti in Dharmapuri's Pennagram Taluk. For the past five years, he had been residing in Namakkal's Pallipalayam, where he owned a fruit shop.
Sources said that his daughter Sumati (20) was settled at Sengapadi in Karnataka. Before the coronavirus lockdown, he had gone to Sengapadi to meet his daughter Sumathi (20), who delivered a baby. Due to the lockdown, he stayed back there for a few days.
On Sunday, he along with her daughter's father-in-law Venkatachalam decided to come back to Tamil Nadu. The duo walked from Sengapadi to Palar but the borders were sealed and police presence was beefed up near the Palar check post.
Fearing that they would not get permission to cross the interstate border, the duo sought to swim across the river. However, Perumal drowned in the river while Venkatachalam managed to reach the shore near Kolathur.
Following the incident, Venkatachalam informed the villagers and Kolathur police but the body was not found in the Kolathur limits on Sunday.
The Bargur police finally retrieved the body from the river on Monday. The body was sent to Government Mettur Hospital for the postmortem examination.