The five men, who drowned in Vontimitta tank on Sunday, have prima facie been identified as natives of Kirankadu in Karumandurai village in Salem district of Tamil Nadu, Deputy Inspector-General of Kurnool Range Ghattamaneni Srinivas said on Monday.
They were identified as Murugesan, 42, son of Chinna Thambi of Adiyanur in Kirankadu, Jayaraj, 25, son of Chinniyan of Pillayar Koil street in Kirankadu, Murugesan, 42, son of Annamalai of Arasaramam street, Karuppanan, 23, son of Ponnuswamy of Keelavari and Chinnapaiyan, 45, son of Andi in Mettu street, taking clues from the information telecast by Tamil news channels, the DIG told the media in Kadapa. The Kadapa police officials were in touch with the Salem district police officials and steps were taken to bring the family members concerned to Kadapa, the DIG said. The identity of the deceased and their residential addresses would be confirmed after their family members identified them. On identification and collection of relevant documents, the bodies would be handed over to their family members for performing the final rites.
Post-mortem performed
Post-mortem performed by a team of doctors in Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences hospital has been videographed, Mr. Srinivas said. On completion of post-mortem, the bodies have been placed in freezer boxes in the RIMS mortuary.
Mr. Srinivas recalled that local people spotted five bodies floating in Vontimitta tank around noon on Sunday and alerted the officials. Thereupon, Vontimitta Circle Inspector apprised the higher-ups. A case of death due to drowning was registered under Crime No. 33/2018 in Vontimitta police station under Section 174 of Cr.P.C. and investigation was taken up. The police and fire officials deployed local fishermen-swimmers who searched the tank for nearly over three hours and retrieved five bodies. Panchanama was performed on the bodies in the presence of revenue officials and witnesses, the DIG said. Jammalamadugu DSP Kola Krishnan was appointed investigation officer in the case as he has fluency in Tamil and can interact with the family members, the DIG said.
The passport-sized photographs of a deceased and a woman were recovered from the purse of a deceased.
Additional SP (Operations) Adnan Nayeem Asmi, DSPs B. Lakshminarayana (Rajampet), Shaik Masoom Basha (Kadapa), Rajagopala Reddy (Special Branch), B. Srinivasulu (Faction Zone) and Kola Krishnan (Jammalamadugu), and Vontimitta CI Ravi Kumar were present.
