Three girls among 4 drown in Muzaffarpur

MUZAFFARPUR: At least four people, including two minor girls from a same family, drowned in two incidents in Muzaffarpur district in the last 24 hours.
The district administration has announced an ex gratia payment of Rs 4 lakh each for the next of the kin of the deceased.
In the first incident, three girls drowned in a pond at Neknema village under the Siwaipatti police station area on Sunday evening.The incident occurred when the girls were playing along the pond outside the village. Two of them were from same family. The girls were identified as Aarti Kumari (10), Khushbu Kumari (6) and Anchal Kumari (8). Aarti and Khushbu were from same family.
Station house officer (SHO) of Siwaipatti Durga Kishku said the bodies of the thre girls were fished out on Monday. “We have sent the bodies to hospital for post mortem. The families will receive ex gratia amount after the post mortem report is made available,” he said.
Manoj Singh, a local, said the girls were from poor families. “When they did not reach their homes till late in the evening, their family members started searching them. The bodies were found floating in the water,” he said.
In another incident, an elderly man drowned in the Noon river at Sahpur Junaid village under the Sakra police station in the district on Sunday.
Circle officer (CO) of Sakra Pankaj Kumar said the deceased had been identified as Ratan Rai (65) of Gaurihar Paitarapur village under the same police station. “A cheque for Rs 4 lakh was handed over to his family members,” the CO said.