Jhansi: Eight people, including five members of a family performing Shradh rituals, drowned in twin tragedies in Jhansi on Tuesday.Police said five members of a family, including a minor, drowned while they were performing Shradh rituals in the Sukhnei river at Devri Singhpura village under Mauranipur police station area.The deceased included 41-year-old Anoop Tiwari, his son Arpit (13), nephews Abhinayi (26), Shreyansh (22) and Pushkar Shukla (26).According to police, Anoop reportedly slipped into a deeper portion of the river. Other family members followed one after another in an attempt to rescue him, but slipped into the deep portion.Police and administrative officials, including Mauranipur SDM Manoj Kumar Bharti and circle officer Ratneshwar Singh, rushed to the spot along with locals after receiving information about the incident. Hundreds of villagers gathered at the site as police and divers launched a rescue operation. The bodies of all five victims were later recovered and taken to a community health centre, where doctors attempted CPR and provided first aid before declaring them dead.In a separate incident, bodies of three friends were found floating in the Sukwan-Dukwan dam falling under Babina police station on Tuesday morning. Police have recovered a motorbike along with two mobile phones and clothes which belonged to the victim from the spot.The victims were identified as Raj (21), a resident of Sipri Bazar, Rahul alias Ritesh Parihar (22) and Neeraj 23 of Prem Nagar.Police said the victims had left their home on Tuesday afternoon for some excursion on the motorbike of Raj. It is being presumed that they had got drowned while taking bath in the dam.
