PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, Sept 18: For the second consecutive day today local divers failed to trace the body of the 25-year-old woman who jumped into river Kharkai along with her two children on Friday.
Divers started search operation since early morning of Saturday but till noon could not get any trace of the bodies.
The woman Santoshi Sardar had jumped into river Kharkai with her two kids from the Adityapur toll bridge in Kadma yesterday.
She was a resident of a slum along Marine Drive in Kadma.
She jumped into the Kharkai river with her two kids- Manisha, the four-year-old daughter and Manish, the one-year-old son. Her six-year-old son was at home.
Santoshi’s husband Govardhan Sardar is a daily wager. Santoshi was suffering from mental illness, said family members.
Eye-witnesses said the woman alongwith her children was swept away by the water current.
The past few days of rain and opening of sluice gates of an Odisha dam had resulted in an abrupt rise in the water level of Kharkai as well as connecting Subernarekha.
Officer-in-charge of Kadma thana Manoj Thakur said efforts were on to fish out the body.
He said an NDRF team was likely to arrive here from Ranchi later in the day for tracing the bodies.
