In a shocking incident, five children drowned in Banda after they went for Kajli immersion in river Ken in Gurgawan village of Banda during the celebration of Raksha Bandhan on Wednesday evening.
As soon as the incident was reported, Superintendent of Police Ankur Agarwal reached the spot with a police team and pulled out five children from the river with the help of divers and sent them to hospital where the doctors pronounced them dead.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed deep grief over the drowning of the children in the river. Expressing his condolences to the bereaved families, he instructed the officials to immediately distribute the permissible relief amount to the families of the deceased.
The incident took place in Gurgawa Majra of Sindhankala village under Pailani police station of Banda.
According to reports, during Kajli immersion, the children suddenly went into deep water and started drowning one by one. When the people standing around saw the children drowning, they raised an alarm, after which the search for the children was started.
Four bodies were fished out within a few hours, but the body of Vivek alias Tannu was recovered from the river by divers after nine hours.
After the bodies were recovered, the police administration immediately sent the bodies for post-mortem. At around 11 pm, the bodies were handed over to the relatives.
The relatives wanted to take the bodies to their homes for last rites, but the police and administrative officials present on the spot did not allow this. All bodies were brought to Muktidham located in Hardaulighat by an ambulance and were cremated there at midnight.
Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Pailani, Shashibhushan Mishra, said that the talk of cremating the bodies of children under pressure was completely baseless. He said the bodies were cremated as per the wish of the families.