Three persons met with watery grave in the Vaigai in separate incidents in the district. All the three bodies were recovered from the riverbed.
The police said that K. Karuppaiah (52) of Vaigai Colony in Viraghanoor and his friend, Thangamani, had gone to see Lord Kallazhagar procession late in the night of April 4.
While walking through the Vaigai around 11.45 p.m. both were washed away by the strong current in the river. While Thangamani managed to reach the bank, Karuppaiah went missing. Karuppaiah’s body was found near the Ring Road Bridge across the Vaigai near the Ramanthapuram Road junction on Wednesday morning. The Silaiman police have registered a case.
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Meanwhile, the body of an unidentified person was found lying in the riverbed near Kachirayiruppu on Wednesday. The Kadupatti police have recovered the body of a male, aged between 25 and 30 years, and are trying to identify it.
In the third incident, a 15-year-old boy, G. Lokesh of HMS Colony went missing in the river when he went for bathing on Tuesday afternoon, the police said. His body was found at Vilangudi on Wednesday. The Sellur police are investigating.
Water in the Vaigai riverbed that remained dry for most part of April, was released from Vaigai dam from May 1.
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As against the usual practice of releasing only 150 mcft of water reserved for Chithirai festival, the Public Works Department had released 390 mcft of water for four days to recharge the water table of infiltration wells of various water schemes in Madurai, Virudhunagar and Sivaganga districts.