Three schoolgoing boys, who had gone to take a bath in the Yamuna River in north Delhi's Alipur area, are feared to have drowned, police said on Sunday.
The search operation is underway, they said.
According to police, they received a PCR call at 7.52 pm on Saturday that three boys -- Rishu, Shivam and Rupesh, all residents of Singhu village -- had left their home saying they were going towards Yamuna River at 9.30 am on bicycles, but did not return.
During verification, it was found that the three children had left with their friends Shubham and Parvesh, but the two groups parted ways thereafter, a senior police officer said.
The families of all five children were called and an extensive search was made near the river with the help of a rescue team, but they were not found. Subsequently, a case under section 363 (punishment for kidnapping) of the IPC was registered at Alipur police station on the statement of the father of one of the children, the officer said.
At 1.45 am, another call was received at Alipur police station that the five kids had gone to Yamuna River. Out of them, only two returned and three have drowned in the river near shank number-4, the officer said.
Based on the information, a search was made near the area and the bicycles of the children were found there, the officer said.
The rescue and police team had made intensive searches in and around Yamuna River during the night hours, but no clue was found. Efforts are continued to trace missing children, police said.
All are students of Class VIII of an MCD school at Singhu, they said.
Rishu’s father Ram Singh said his son, along with four others who live nearby had gone to Yamuna River on Saturday morning but did not return.
“Rishu and four others who live in the same area had gone to take a bath in Yamuna River and left home on Saturday morning. Two children returned home around 3 pm. When Rishu and two others did not return, we started searching for them around 6 pm.
“We called the police around 7.30 pm when we could not find our kids. Later, we got to know that two more had gone with our kids. We asked them about Rishu and others. Initially, they did not say anything, but later when we asked them strictly, they told us that three had drowned in the river,” Singh said.
Singh further stated that the five kids had gone to Yamuna River on three bicycles.
“The search operation is still underway, but nothing has been found so far. He is my elder son. We can only pray for his well-being,” said Singh, who works at a paper factory.