In a tragic incident, the three children who went missing in the Edara village of Agiripalle mandal in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh were found dead in a pond in the village on Tuesday. Residents suspect that the incident might have happened when the children went into the pond to play, which is reportedly 1.5 kilometers away from their home.
The children were identified as Shashank, (11), Chandrika (9) and Jagadish (3). While Shashank and Chandrika are siblings from the same family, Jagadish is a neighbour's son. Agiripalle Police have registered a case under section 174 of Criminal Penal Code (death due to drowning)
According to reports, police had formed six teams for the search operation after they received a complaint of the missing children. The children were reportedly playing alone at home as their parents, who are daily wage workers, were out for the work.
DSP B Sreenivasulu was quoted in the Times of India saying that the search teams looked everywhere for the kids, but could not find them. He further added that they have co-ordinated the search operation with the village volunteers who circulated the photos of the kids in various WhatsApp groups, after which a local resident had informed them that he had seen them playing near the pond. When the police searched the pond, the bodies of the children were found.
The report further adds that the resident, who is from a neighbouring village had also informed the police that he saw the children were playing in the pond and had warned them to get out. He also said that he had left after seeing the three children come out of the pond. However, it is suspected that they may have gone into the pond to play after he left.
The bodies of the children were sent to the Nuzvid Government Hospital for postmortem.