The death toll in the Krishna river boat tragedy at the Pavitra Sangamam remained 21 even as the body of a seven-year-old was retrieved on Tuesday. It has now emerged that the body of a man presumed to be that of the boat’s assistant driver was of a person not connected to the accident.
The body of Manyam Lakshmi Narayana was claimed by the family members who told the police that he was from Jaggaiapet, local police said. Narayana came to Vijayawada on November 11 and had been missing since then.
About 48 hours after the accident, the teams of the NDRF and the SDRF had called off the search operation, the police said.
Around 12.30 a.m. on Tuesday, the body of the seven-year-old Popuri Ashwika, a native of Nellore, was traced. Her mother P. Haritha and grandmother P. Lalithamma also lost their lives in the accident.
Tourism Minister Bhuma Akhila Priya, who was overseeing the search operations well past midnight, directed the authorities concerned to make arrangements to shift the body to Nellore.
Wrong entry
Meanwhile, a wrong entry in the list of missing persons reportedly created confusion and caused the search teams to continue the operation until Tuesday evening. “A name was added to the list of missing persons at the call centre. Later, we found that there was no such woman tourist and that the name of a survivor was repeated,” said a police official.
In all, bodies of 20 tourists who were in the ill-fated boat had been retrieved, while one died undergoing treatment. Twenty others were rescued while the whereabouts of the three crew members were not yet known.
Though the police believe that the trio could have survived and gone into hiding, they are unable to trace them.
Boat driver Suribabu, assistant driver Bairava Swami and helper Rama Rao are facing allegations of negligence, which caused the tragedy.
“The families of the three men are not coming forward to lodge a missing person’s complaint or reveal their whereabouts,” a police officer said. “None of the survivors was able to provide any information related to the driver and two others. Rescuers, including local fishermen and staff of another water sports firm at the Sangamam, too could not give any clue,” the officer said. “We still consider them missing,” the police said.
Speculation is rife that the trio had jumped out of the boat and swam away.
