CHENNAI: Five youths who were taking part in a temple ritual at Moovarasampet Tank near Madipakkam in Chennai drowned in the waterbody on Wednesday morning. They were part of a group of 25, including priests, who had entered the tank to perform ‘theerthavari’ ceremony for the panguni uthiram festival of Dharmalingeshwarar Temple located in Nanganallur.
All five bodies were retrieved by fire department personnel and sent to Chromepet Government Hospital for postmortem. Chief Minister MK Stalin expressed his condolences and ordered Rs 2 lakh solatium each to the families of the victims from the CM’s Public Relief Fund. The Pazhavanthangal police are probing the case.
Police identified the deceased as B Surya alias Gururajan (24) R Raghavan (22) and V Vanesh (19), all from Nanganallur, and P Yogeshwaran (19) of Keelkatalai, and R Sriram alias Raghav (19) of Puluthivakkam. Police said Surya, a Class 10 dropout, worked with his father in their catering company, and Raghavan and Sriram were pursuing CA. Vanesh was pursuing BCom through correspondence and Yogeshwaran worked at a car showroom. None of the victims knew swimming, police sources said.
A police officer told TNIE, “The victims had gone to the tank for the ritual with a group of people around 10 am. Nearly 25 from the group entered the water. As part of the ceremony, they formed a circle inside the water holding hands to take holy dips. While taking the dips, three of them drifted away to deeper parts of the tank and started drowning. Two others, who saw them, tried to pull them out but they too lost balance, drowned and went under water.”
‘None of the victims knew swimming, accident occurred during third dip’
Upon information, personnel from Palavanthangal police station and Velachery Fire and Rescue Services units rushed to the spot. The bodies were retrieved and sent to the Chromepet GH. Chengalpattu collector AR Rahul Nadh visited the hospital. Another police officer attached to the Pazhavanthangal police station, said, "The ceremony has been taking place for the past three years.
A few police officers and personnel were present at the site during the incident. The dipping ritual was held thrice on Wednesday morning. The accident occurred during the third dip." The officer said the lake belonged to Moovarasampet village panchayat and it was used for the ritual since it was close to the temple.
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Surya’s younger brother Santhosh told TNIE, "After completing Class 10, my brother was helping our father in our catering business. Whenever he is not at home, he can be found at the temple. He never went anywhere else."
"When I call him over phone, he would always say that he is at the temple. He would never accompany us, play or go around anywhere else," said Surya’s friend Harish.
Surya’s neighbour Indira said, "His grandmother told me that she had asked him not to go to that ceremony. But Surya had insisted that he would go to the temple and witness the ceremony. The family came to know about his participation in the ceremony only after seeing the news on TV."
A senior police officer said, "The temple is not under the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department but the auditing of temple funds is being done by the department. After the accident, HR&CE officials visited the spot and have started a parallel investigation."
Chennai City Police Commissioner Shankar Jiwal and Minister for Rural Industries TM Anbarasan visited the spot. According to sources, while local police were informed about the temple ritual, fire department was not informed about it. Temple authorities could not be reached for comment.