Five Bodies Found After Seven People Washed Away by High Tide During Tarpan Rituals in Hooghly River

Approximately twenty-four hours after seven people carrying out tarpan rites on Mahalaya morning were washed away by a strong tide in the Hooghly river from the Uttarpara neighborhood's BB Street Ghat, police found five dead on Sunday morning.

Following a thorough overnight search, a combined NDRF and civil defense crew located the five bodies early on Sunday morning close to the Bally Bridge. Amit P. Javalgi, commissioner of Chandernagore, kept an eye on the activity.

The five bodies were transferred to the Serampore Walsh Hospital for autopsy after the relatives identified them.

Arvind Kumar Anand, the deputy commissioner for Serampore, stated: "Early on Sunday morning, the rescue squad discovered three dead close to the Bally Bridge. Later in the day, two more bodies were discovered.”

A rising flood on Saturday morning washed away at least seven people. Five were still missing while two were saved by locals.

Late on Saturday morning, family members and locals became enraged and set up a roadblock, accusing the police of being indifferent to their situation. Subsequently, the families filed missing person's reports with Uttarpara police, forcing the district government to launch the all-night search.

Some locals accused the police of being responsible for the five deaths, claiming that no alarm or surveillance was in place due to the high tide, which coincided with the tarpan rituals.

A few thousand people had congregated by the Hooghly River for a considerable distance. However, there was no police oversight. Only after the high tide carried seven people away did they bother to start monitoring the area, according to local resident Kishan Prasad.

The BJP officials in the Hooghly district reiterated similar claims as well.

"The police did not bother to warn the locals (on Mahalaya) even though they knew when the tidal wave would occur. Additionally, they started the search much later," asserted Pankaj Roy, a local BJP leader.

The Trinamul leadership denied the accusation, asserting that the administration had taken all necessary precautions.

"This happened by accident. The deaths of five of the seven missing people were not anything that could have been predicted, according to Uttarpara civic chairman Dilip Yadav.