Two brothers - Atul Mahli (5) and Alok Mahli (7) - drowned while taking bath at Som Vihar pond under Bariatu Police Station in Ranchi just after the devotees left the place after offering prayers to the Sun God. In another incident one person also drowned while offering prayers to the rising sun during Chhat Puja at Domuhani Chowk under Sonari police station early on Thursday morning.  

The two brothers in Ranchi along with their other two friends had gone to take bath in the pond but somehow started drowning into the deep water. The two friends raised an alarm and were taken to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences after being taken out of the water, but were declared dead by the Doctors. 

Mahli brothers were studying in class lKG and Class I in a local Greenfields School in Bariatu. While in Jamshedpur a 31-year-old man was drowned while offering prayers during Chhat Puja. The victim has been identified as Guljari Prasad Shau, a resident of Bhuiyandih in Sitaramdera and father of three children.

The police are yet to locate the body from the river-meet which has comparatively more water than any other Chhat ghaat either in Subarnarekha or Kharkai.

According to a relative, Guljari along his family from his house in Bhuiyandih to his brother-in-law’s were at Sonari for performing Chhat Puja since Wednesday. Significantly, the victim’s family members have alleged that there was no arrangement of divers for safety of the devotees and claimed that had there been any divers at Domuhani. However, officer-in-charge, Sonari police station, Animesh Gupta claimed that there was all arrangement of divers and policemen at the Chhat ghat in Domuhani.