police officials inspect Pedda Kancharla lake in Patancheru, where six students drowned
During the investigation, police found that the warden, 53-year-old Varanasi Jay Prakash Rao, had taken the students to the lake for the immersion and directed them to enter the water. At 8 am on Thursday, Rao was taken into custody and subsequently arrested under Section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the BNS. The tragic incident, police said, occurred a little after 5.30pm on Wednesday when 15 boys from the charitable trust-run hostel reached Pedda Kancharla lake for immersion.
The boys eventually drowned,” said an official of Patancheru police. Patancheru inspector M Ravinder told TOI that the accused was produced before a magistrate and later sent to judicial remand. Eyewitnesses said an ambulance and police reached the spot nearly an hour later.
Hyderabad: A day after six inmates of Sirisha Memorial Charitable Trust drowned during Ganesh idol immersion at Pedda Kancharla lake in Patancheru, on Hyderabad’s outskirts, police arrested the hostel warden following demands from the victims’ families for strict action against him. “He knew about the danger of sending them into the water and yet allowed them to go ahead, without taking any precautionary measures. Alerted by students waiting on the lake shore, some hostel staff and locals rushed to the site and retrieved the bodies from the water. Police initially believed that the deceased were orphans but later learnt that they were not. The hostel also housed children who were in the care of single parents and those from financially weaker families.
“These six boys belonged to different parts of Telangana and AP and had been living at the hostel since many years. On receiving the news, their family members rushed to Patancheru late on Wednesday night and demanded action against Rao for his alleged negligence in allowing the students to enter the water,” said a source.