Tragedy took place when the children were playing in an agricultural pond

Pandavapura: Three children were drowned after getting stuck in slush while playing in an agricultural pond at Bale Attiguppe village in the taluk yesterday.

The deceased are Chandru (11) and Karthik (9), children of Mahadevappa and Bharati couple and Ritesh (8), son of Mallikarjuna and Suma couple of Bale Attiguppe village.

Details: Chandru and Karthik, children of Mahadevappa and Bharati, both daily wagers and Ritesh, son of Suma, an employee of a petrol bunk and Mallikarjuna, yesterday morning went to the field of one Jayaram at Bevinakuppe village in the outskirts of Bale Attiguppe village and were playing in the agricultural pond there.

While they were playing, one of the boys reportedly got stuck in the slush and began to drown. Shocked over this, the other boys, in a bid to rescue him, jumped into the pond and also got stuck in the slush and were drowned.

As the news of the children getting drowned in the pond spread, a large crowd had gathered at the spot. The agricultural pond was dug up in the field of Jayaram and water was being filled into it through a borewell. The pond, which is 25 ft. in diameter, had about 8 ft. water in it. Villagers said that the pond was not fenced nor any precautions were taken to prevent people from coming near it.

MLA C.S. Puttaraju, Deputy Commissioner Ashwathi, Tahsildar Pramod Patil, Additional SP Dhananjaya, Circle Inspector K. Prabhakar and others visited the spot. MLA Puttaraju, after consoling the family members, assured of providing suitable compensation to the family members. 

Post-mortem was conducted on the spot in the presence of the officials and the bodies were handed over to the family members, who performed the last rites. Pandavapura Police have registered a case and investigating.