Mysore/Mysuru: Three Ayyappa Swamy devotees including a SSLC student met their watery grave at Kapila River in Nanjangud on Friday.

The deceased are identified as Gaviranga (26), son of Guddarangaiah from Naraganahalli, Rakesh (19), son of Srinivas and Appu (16), son of Ramakrishna from Kalluguttarahalli in Tumakuru district.

While Appu was a SSLC student, Rakesh was studying first year BA. Eight relatives including the deceased had been on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala Sree Ayyappa Temple in Kerala on Jan. 17 and were on a return journey to their native Tumakuru, when the tragedy struck en route home.

It is said that, Ramakrishna, Nikit Gowda, Madesha, Bhuvan Gowda, Chikkaranga and the deceased trio stopped by Kapila River near Hejjige bridge in Nanjangud town. All went to river for bathing at 10.30 am. Barring the deceased, others returned to the River Bank soon after having a bath. The deceased, who were still swimming in water, went ahead further, only to be pulled by the force of vortex (Suli)  in water.

Ramakrishna and Madesha, who noticed them drowning, also made a bid to rescue them, but to no avail.

Learning about the incident, Nanjangud Town Police Station Inspector Basavaraju, along with his staff, rushed to the spot and made arrangements to retrieve the victims from water, with the help of Fire and Emergency Services personnel and expert divers. By the time, they were pulled out of water, it was afternoon and barring Gaviranga, who was still breathing, the other two had breathed their last. Gaviranga was rushed to General Hospital in Nanjangud, where he succumbed after sometime.

The bodies were handed over to the relatives after post-mortem.

Nanjangud MLA Darshan Dhruvanarayan, who visited the hospital, gave financial assistance from his pocket to grieving relatives, towards funeral expenses.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Seema Latkar, Additional SP Dr. B.N. Nandini, Dy.SP (Nanjangud Sub-Division) Govindaraju and others visited the spot.