Rescue operations underway at Kengeri Lake.
Credit: Special Arrangement
Bengaluru: Fire and Emergency personnel on Tuesday recovered the body of a 13-year-old boy and his 11-year-old sister, who drowned at the Kengeri Lake in western Bengaluru on Monday evening.
The deceased is John Srinivas and his sister Lakshmi. Fire and emergency personnel and other rescuers found Srinivas’s body in the morning and Lakshmi’s body in the evening.
The police control room was alerted of the drowning between 5.30 and 6 pm on Monday and a Hoysala patrolling vehicle was despatched. An officer said the two stayed in a house near the lake. The mother, Nagamma, was away at work from home when the incident occurred.
“The single mother works as a sanitation worker with the BBMP,” a police officer said. “The probe so far revealed that the two were there to fetch water and were on the banks. It is suspected that their water pot fell into the lake and they both drowned trying to recover it.”
Sources in the fire department told DH that the control room received an alert at 8.30 pm on Monday. The rescue operations were resumed early Tuesday morning as they were initially called off due to bad lighting and rains.
Srinivas’s clothes were also found on the banks. Police suspect that Lakshmi drowned first and Srinivas jumped in later after removing his clothes to rescue her. Nagamma has alleged that Srinivas tried to alert a few neighbours but no one came to the rescue, which led him to jump in. The bodies have been sent for autopsy.