The death count in the cruise boat tragedy in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur district earlier this week increased to 13 after the bodies of a five-year-old and his uncle were recovered from the Bargi Dam this morning, said the police on Sunday.
"The bodies of Mayuram (5) and his uncle Kamraj (around 50), an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, were found floating and were fished out of the dam," Bargi Sub Divisional Officer of Police Anjul Ayank Mishra told news agency PTI over the phone.
Here's everything you need to know about this story in 10 points:
- The bodies of Mayuram and Kamraj were fished out from the Bargi Dam this morning. They were on the cruise boat with over 40 passengers that capsized during a storm on Thursday evening.
- Following the tragedy, a massive rescue operation was launched that consisted teams from the Army, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local divers.
- The police have recovered all 13 bodies now and sent them to a government hospital for a post-mortem.
- The police said that CCTV showed that 43 people had boarded the boat before the tragedy. However, only the identities of 41 passengers have been confirmed so far. Of these 41, 28 were rescued while 13 lost their lives.
- The Madhya Pradesh government has now launched a massive probe into the incident and also dismissed three crew members. The boat was operated by the tourism department of Madhya Pradesh government.
- "The team will submit its report within a month. If the boat's fitness check was not done, concerned officials will face action," Madhya Pradesh tourism minister Dharmendra Singh Lodhi said on Saturday.
- Though the state government has asserted that the boat sank due to the heavy waves triggered by a sudden storm, pointing out that the 2006-model catamaran was designed to "not sink".
- "This was a 2006 model catamaran. It is made in such a manner so as not to sink. The possibility of its sinking was negligible. The tragedy took place due to the powerful storm two days ago," Lodhi told PTI.
- Eyewitnesses have also backed the government's claim and said that strong winds caused the boat to sank. However, they also pointed out to the negligence by the crew and described a last-minute scramble for life jackets.
- "No one was made to wear life jackets beforehand. When water started entering, they hurriedly distributed them, which caused chaos, and people started snatching them. Then the cruise capsized. There was a lot of negligence," Sangeeta Kori, a tourist from Delhi, told PTI.
