Four minor girls drown in Banka waterbody

PATNA: Four minor girls drowned while taking bath in a water body at Ghospur village under the Shambhuganj police station area in Banka district around 8.30am on Tuesday.
SHO of Shambhuganj police station Umesh Prasad said the deceased girls were identified as Tapti Kumari (15), Neha Kumari (15), Neelu Kumari (10) and Savita Kumari (10). While Tapti and Neha were Class IX students of a government school, the other two girls were studying in junior classes.
“At least 15 to 20 girls from the village had gone to the water body to take bath.The bodies of the four girls were fished out with the help of villagers and sent for postmortem. A case of unnatural death was registered with the Shambhuganj police station on the basis village chowkidar Subhash Paswan’s statement,” the SHO added.
Locals told police that ‘karma-dharma’ festival would be celebrated in the village on Wednesday and the girls had gone to the water body to perform rituals and take bath.
Shambhuganj circle officer Ashok Kumar Singh said the district administration had been informed about the incident. “We will recommend to the disaster management department to grant an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh to the kin of each of the deceased after receiving their postmortem reports,” Singh added.