Mathura boat capsize tragedy: Death toll climbs to 13
The search for 3 more missing people continues.
Superintendent of Police (Rural) Suresh Chandra Rawat said renewed search efforts led to the recovery of the body of a college student identified as Dinki Bansal near Devraha Baba Ghat and a man identified as Rishabh Sharma about 3 km from the accident site.
The incident took place on Friday afternoon when a boat carrying more than two dozen tourists, mostly from Punjab, capsized after hitting the floating drum of the pontoon bridge near Kesi Ghat in Vrindavan.
Most of the victims were from Jagraon and Dugri districts of Ludhiana district.
National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams, as well as district administration and local police, actively participated in the search for the missing pilgrims.
But the strong currents of the Yamuna river and the considerable depth of water in the ghats pose an obstacle. Circle Officer (Mant) Sandeep Singh said the Yamuna river stretch from Keshi Ghat to Gokul Dam has been divided into seven sectors.
Search efforts for missing persons will now be carried out in this 20 square kilometer area. A Station House Officer (SHO) has been appointed in charge of each sector.
Acting on the orders of the DIG (Agra Ranges), seven SHOs will oversee operations in seven sectors of the Yamuna river.
Giving details about the operation, Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue) Pankaj Kumar Verma on Saturday, citing NDRF officials, said that although the search for the missing persons is currently concentrated within a radius of 14 km from the spot where the boat capsized, there is a possibility that they may have drifted much further down.
SHO Sanjay Pandey of Vrindavan police station said the boat operator Pappu was arrested late on Friday night.
He is accused of not giving passengers life jackets before allowing them to board and of driving the boat at high speed. This caused the boat to lose control and hit the drum of the pontoon bridge, leading to the accident, officials said.
Police registered a case and also arrested Narayan Sharma, the contractor responsible for the repair work on the pontoon bridge.
Rawat said on Friday evening, the police registered a case under section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the boatmen Pappu (alias Dauji) and Sharma and subsequently arrested them.
According to the details of the case, Pappu’s boat did not have any safety equipment or provisions.
Moreover, despite repeated requests from the pilgrims, Pappu operated the boat at high speed. When he approached the pontoons of the bridge and realized the danger, it was too late.
As a result, after hitting a pontoon drum, the boat lost control and capsized. It was also revealed that he was among the operators who did not have the necessary license to operate a boat.
Sharma was carrying out the dismantling and reinstallation of the pontoon bridge without any prior notice.
