News Desk: The bodies of four youths who went missing after a boat capsized during Durga idol immersion in Rajasthan’s Kota were recovered from the Kotri canal on Wednesday, around 18 hours after the accident, police said. The incident occurred on Tuesday evening near the Steel Bridge, leaving four people dead.
According to officials, seven people were swept away when the boat overturned at around 5.30 pm on Tuesday. Three people, including an unidentified woman, Deepak and boatman Suresh, managed to swim to safety. The remaining four youths went missing, prompting an extensive search operation by rescue teams.
The deceased have been identified as Vikas Verma, alias Suman, 22; cousins Eshu Joshi, 19, and Rahul Joshi, 18; and Suraj Singh, 22. Additional District Magistrate Vikas Malhotra confirmed that all four bodies had been recovered.
Search Operation Continued Overnight
Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), along with civil defence personnel and local divers, launched a search operation soon after the accident.
Rescue efforts continued until around 11.30 pm on Tuesday. However, the operation had to be suspended due to darkness, as the teams were unable to locate the missing youths.
The search resumed at approximately 5.30 am on Wednesday. During the initial phase, rescuers recovered the bodies of Vikas Verma and Suraj Singh around 100 metres downstream from the accident site.
The teams subsequently continued searching other stretches of the canal, eventually locating the bodies of Eshu Joshi and Rahul Joshi a few hours later.
Bodies Sent for Post-Mortem
Following the recovery, police shifted all four bodies to Maharao Bhim Singh (MBS) Hospital in Kota for post-mortem examinations. Officials said the bodies would be handed over to the respective families after the necessary procedures were completed in their presence.
The tragedy occurred during the immersion of Durga idols, a religious ritual observed after the Durga Puja celebrations. The accident has highlighted the risks associated with water-based immersion activities, particularly when water conditions change.
Officials also confirmed that water had been released into the canal on Tuesday, the day the boat capsized.
The recovery of all four bodies brought the search operation to an end, leaving the families of the deceased to cope with the sudden loss of their loved ones.
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