Rourkela/Koraput: Four people, including three children, drowned while bathing in separate incidents in Sundargarh and Koraput districts on Wednesday.Three girls drowned while bathing in Sankh river under Raiboga police limits in Sundargarh district on Wednesday morning.According to police, Sibika Sahu (7), Gitika Sahu (6) and Shruti Kumari (9), all residents of Majhatoli village under Salangabahal panchayat, went to the river around 8.30am along with their friend Pratap Sahu (9). While bathing, the girls reportedly slipped into deep water and went missing. Pratap raised an alarm, prompting villagers living nearby to rush to the spot. They pulled the girls out and informed police.The children were first taken to Jambahal primary health centre. As no doctor was available there, they were shifted to Birmitrapur community health centre (CHC), where doctors declared them brought dead.Raiboga police reached the hospital and launched an investigation. The bodies have been sent for postmortem. “We have registered an unnatural death case and are investigating the circumstances leading to the incident. The bodies will be handed over to the families after the inquest and postmortem,” said Dibya Oram, inspector in charge (IIC) of Raiboga police station.In a similar incident, a 56-year-old man drowned while taking a bath in a village pond at Tikarapoda in Dasmantpur block of Koraput district.According to sources, Lim Dishari (56) slipped into deep water and drowned before he could be rescued.Following the incident, his younger son, Manobadh Dishari, lodged a written complaint at Dasmantpur police station.Acting on the complaint, a police team, led by sub-inspector Susmita Malik and ASI Rabindra Badakumar, visited the spot at the direction of Dasmantpur police station IIC Charan Singh Majhi. “Fire services personnel and local villagers recovered the body, which was sent for postmortem by police, and later handed over to the family,” said the IIC.
