Representative image of ai jail.
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Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Police arrested two persons in connection with the Mahanadi river boat capsize in Jharsuguda district in which eight people died, an official said.
Police registered a suo moto case and arrested the duo after an investigation, he said.
“We have arrested two people on Saturday and forwarded them to court,” Jharsuguda SP Parmar Smit Parshottamdas told PTI over phone.
After completing formalities, the bodies of the deceased, hailing from Anjoripali village in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh, have been handed over to their family members, he said.
The injured persons have also been sent home with the help of the local administration of Chhattisgarh, the SP said.
Loknath Meher, the Motor Vehicle Inspector (MVI) of Jharsuguda district, had said on Saturday that the boat was not registered and deemed unfit to operate. It also did not have any life jackets onboard.
“Despite being designed to accommodate only 20 people, it carried more than 50 passengers, resulting in the mishap on Friday afternoon,” Meher said.