SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Sept 16: Four teenage girls aged between 12 years to 15 years drowned while taking a bath in a village pond in Pethiyatand village under Pachamba police station area around 6 km away from the Giridih district headquarters on Tuesday morning.
A police official said the incident occurred at around 10 am. A group of girls from Handadih village had gone to bring clay and sand from the nearby Pethiyatand village pond for the Karma festival. After collecting the clay and sand, five of them entered the pond to bathe. One of the girls slipped into the deep water. In the course of saving her three others also drowned.
However, the fifth girl identified as Puja Kumari was saved safely by villagers. She was immediately admitted to Sadar Hospital in a critical condition.
The girls who died were identified as Mamta Kumari (15), Divya Kumari (12), Shrishthi Kumari (12) and Sandhya Kumari (14).
The villagers said having seen them drowning, other members of the girls’ group raised the alarm and villagers reached the spot immediately but four girls had already died before being fished out by local people.
Getting information, Deputy Superintendent of Police Sanjay Rana and Pachamba police station officer-in-charge Mukesh Dayal Singh immediately reached the spot and launched a rescue operation with local youths.
Giridh Sadar MLA Sudivya Kumar Sonu also reached the incident spot and expressed deep shock over the tragedy. He said that the state government would give proper compensation to victims’ families. “ After completion of the post-mortem and other formalities, compensation would be announced,” he said.
