Karkala: Three Ayyappa Devotees Drown in Two Incidents

Daijiworld Media Network – Karkala (SP)

Karkala, Nov 28: In two separate incidents which occurred on Sunday November 27, three devotees of Lord Ayyappa, who were to undertake pilgrimage to Sabarimala shortly, drowned.

In the first incident that occurred at Mantrady near Moodbidri, Sadanand (31), son of Gulabi Moolya, resident of Daregudde Five Cents Colony, and Lokesh (35) from Mantrady village, lost their lives.

Suresh, a local, and his friends, Sadanand and Lokesh, had ventured into River Phalguni at Mantrady after lunch. At first, they washed their clothes. Suresh was hanging his clothes for drying, when Sadanand and Lokesh, who had finished hanging their clothes, entered the river again for bath. Both of them presumably drowned due to whirlpools accompanying deep pits found inside the river.

On seeing that his friends had gone missing, Suresh shouted for help. People gathered there, and started search operations. The bodies of the drowned youth were found a little distance away by the fire brigade personnel of Moodbidri fire brigade. Moodbidri circle inspector of police, A K Timmaiah, and station house officer, Ramesh Kumar, visited the spot and undertook investigation.

Lokesh is survived by wife and a two-year-old son. As he was well-versed with the area, the locals guess that he would have died while trying to rescue Sadanand. Sadanand was unmarried, and used to stay with his mother. He did painting and miscellaneous jobs for a living during the day, and worked as a helper in a bar in Mangalore at night. He was instrumental in conducting marriages of his two elder sisters and an elder brother.

Satish Devadiga (26), another Ayyappa devotee, and only son of Appu Devadiga, resident of Pulkeri Bypass here, drowned while taking bath in Ramasamudra in Karkala on Sunday. He slipped accidentally and drowned in water. He was working as an assistant in a local shop, and used to stay at Sarvodaya Ashrama near Ramasamudra. He was working in Bangalore, and had shifted back to his native place on account of his father’s ill health.