Woman, 2 children go missing as overloaded boat topples in Domkal
Kolkata: A woman along with her two children have gone missing after a boat capsized in Bhairav River at Domkal in Murshidabad district on Thursday night. The disaster management team carried out a search operation throughout Friday but were unable to trace anybody.
According to police sources, a boat with more than 50 passengers onboard had just left from Garibpur Ghat for its destination at Uttar Garibpur on the other side of the river, when the incident took place.
As the site of the accident was not too far from the river bank, a number of passengers managed to swim to the shore while seven were rescued by the quick response team from the state Disaster Management department.
The missing woman Jahura Bibi and her two children are residents of Kalyanpur village under Domkal police station area.
Initially, there were apprehensions of a dozen people going missing after the mishap, but sources in the district administration informed that the number of people who could not be traced was three. Preliminary investigations by the police have revealed that the boat was overloaded with passengers, which resulted in the mishap.
"The boatman was requesting the passengers repeatedly to wait for the next boat and not to overload it. But most of the passengers insisted and said that they were already getting late. The boatman started off and after going a little distance, the boat toppled," said Amit Ukil, who is undergoing treatment at Domkal Mahakuma Hospital after falling from the boat.
Apart from carrying passengers beyond the intake capacity, the boat was also ferrying a number of motorcycles and bicycles. "This further made the boat excessively heavy and it sank being unable to bear the load," a senior official in the district administration said.
"We had given strict instructions that the boats should not ferry passengers beyond their capacity. But the direction was not adhered to," a senior police official said, adding that a thorough probe is being conducted.
