A woman and her daughter drowned in a lake after the car they were travelling in fell in a lake in Balekadi on the National Highway, near Suntikoppa on Thursday night.
Bhavita (42), wife of Venkatesh, a first division assistant in the forest department in Madikeri and their daughter Pallavi (13), are the deceased.
They were natives of Kushalnagar. They were returning after meeting Surya, who is studying in a private college in Puttur. Surya is the son of Venkatesh and Bhavita.
On the way to Kushalnagar via Madikeri, Venkatesh, who was driving the car, lost control over the vehicle and rammed a tree on Balekadu Road and later the car fell into a lake nearby.
Hearing the loud noise of the car plunging into the lake, plantation workers Kapali, Ashok and Balakrishna rushed to the spot of the accident and rescued Venkatesh who was swimming towards the bank.
Even though Bhavita was rescued, she had already died after suffering a serious head injury. However, they could not find Pallavi as the car had completely submerged by then. Her body, which was inside the car, was fished out later after lifting the car with the help of a crane.
Venkatesh was said to be in an inebriated condition, according to witnesses.
The public vented their ire against Venkatesh as he was asking the police to recover a bag containing gold jewellery, which was said to be inside the car during the incident, while the other people were trying to recover the bodies of his wife and daughter.