Five members of two families drown during picnic in Jamnagar

Police handed over the five bodies to the family members and the funeral was held today.

Jamnagar: Five members of two neighbouring families drowned while enjoying a picnic in Sapda dam in Gujarat's Jamnagar on Saturday.

The bodies were handed over to the families after post-mortem at GG Hospital today. The funeral procession of all five were taken out together from Digvijay Plot. Several people took part in the procession to mourn the five deaths. The factories of the area too remained shut so as to enable the workers to attend the last rites.

The deceased were Maheshbhai Karabhai Mange (44), his wife Linaben Maheshbhai Mange (41) and son Siddha Maheshbhai Mange (20) and the other family included Anitaben Vinodbhai Dama (40) and her son Rahul Vinodbhai Dama (17). According to the police the incident took place when the two families were enjoying themselves in a picnic near the dam.

Rahul and his mother Anitaben Vinodbhai Dama had come to Jamnagar two days back. The two along with their neighbour, Maheshbhai's family had gone for a picnic at Sapda dam, located 20 km from Jamnagar. The five decided to take a bath in the overflowing water of the dam.

A visitor spotted a body floating on the surface of the dam and informed police. When police reached the spot, they noticed many pairs of shoes and suspected that more than one had drowned. The fire brigade team was pressed into service and five bodies were fished out of the water one after another.

It was learnt that Maheshbhai owned a grocery store in Jamnagar and had shut it to go for a picnic with his wife and son, who was studying engineering.