In a tragic accident, three members of a family were washed away in a canal belonging to the Parambikulam-Aliyar Project (PAP) near Palladam in Tiruppur district. The incident happened on Tuesday and the victims included a 12-year-old girl. According to a report, the family-- Devi (18), her husband Sethupathi (23), Devi’s sister Saranya (12) and their mother had, on Tuesday, taken a trip to visit a temple to celebrate Saranya’s birthday. As the temple was situated near the PAP canal, after their visit, Saranya wanted to take a dip in the canal and asked her family to wait in the bank while she went ahead. However, Saranya accidentally fell into the canal and was dragged away by the water current. Seeing her being washed away, Devi and Sethupathi also jumped into the water, only to be taken away by the current.

After being alerted by the mother, Fire and Rescue services personnel and the police launched search operations to find the three persons on Tuesday evening. According to Palladam Deputy Superintendent of Police KC Ramachandran, the seven-person rescue team recovered all three bodies from the canal. “Devi’s body was fished out on Wednesday and the bodies of the other two-- Sethupathi and Saranya-- were recovered on Thursday. We have sent them all for autopsy in Tiruppur Government Medical College and Hospital,” he told TNM.

The Kamanaickenpalayam police have also registered an FIR under section 174 CrPC (Unnatural death) on the incident.

In February, an eight-year-old boy Rohit drowned in a PAP canal near Aliyar in Coimbatore district. He had allegedly gone to a park near the canal to play and did not return even after late evening. This prompted his parents to search for him. They ended up finding his body floating in the canal after a few hours.