<p>Three teenage girls who went to fetch water from River Bhima at Gubbewad, a border village in Bijapur district, drowned in a pit dug on the river bank on Maharashtra side on Friday.<br /><br />The deceased have been identified as Bhagyasri, 12, Mahananda, 14, and Bhagyasri, 12, all residents of Gubbewad village in Indi taluk. The pit is in Akkalakot taluk of Maharashtra.</p>.<p>Police sources said the girls along with four others had gone to the river to take bath and also to fetch water.</p>.<p> However, as there was no water on the Karnataka side of the river, they went a little further and across the river to the Maharashtra side and found a pit filled with water. The pit was reportedly dug by the sand mafia in that state.<br /><br />Oblivious of the depth, they entered the pit. As the pit was deep and the girls didn’t know swimming, they all drowned.<br /><br />The incident became complicated for the police as the victims were from Karnataka but the place of the incident was in Maharashtra.<br /><br />The Indi DySP, who rushed to the spot, alerted the tahsildar of Akkalakot about the incident. But the tahsildar reached the spot very late. <br /><br />The relatives of the deceased and villagers were so enraged that they went on a rampage and burnt the vehicle of the tahsildar. <br /><br />They also pelted stones at an earthmover reportedly used by the sand mafia.<br /><br />The violence aggravated after the tahsildar told the villagers that Maharashtra government wouldn’t pay any compensation to the victims’ families.<br /><br />Sources said that the villagers did not accept the funeral assistance offered by the tahsildar and cremated the deceased on the banks of River Bhima.<br /><br />When contacted, Bijapur SP Ram Nivas Sepat told Deccan Herald that no case has been registered at any police station in the district as the incident occurred in Maharashtra.<br /><br /></p>
<p>Three teenage girls who went to fetch water from River Bhima at Gubbewad, a border village in Bijapur district, drowned in a pit dug on the river bank on Maharashtra side on Friday.<br /><br />The deceased have been identified as Bhagyasri, 12, Mahananda, 14, and Bhagyasri, 12, all residents of Gubbewad village in Indi taluk. The pit is in Akkalakot taluk of Maharashtra.</p>.<p>Police sources said the girls along with four others had gone to the river to take bath and also to fetch water.</p>.<p> However, as there was no water on the Karnataka side of the river, they went a little further and across the river to the Maharashtra side and found a pit filled with water. The pit was reportedly dug by the sand mafia in that state.<br /><br />Oblivious of the depth, they entered the pit. As the pit was deep and the girls didn’t know swimming, they all drowned.<br /><br />The incident became complicated for the police as the victims were from Karnataka but the place of the incident was in Maharashtra.<br /><br />The Indi DySP, who rushed to the spot, alerted the tahsildar of Akkalakot about the incident. But the tahsildar reached the spot very late. <br /><br />The relatives of the deceased and villagers were so enraged that they went on a rampage and burnt the vehicle of the tahsildar. <br /><br />They also pelted stones at an earthmover reportedly used by the sand mafia.<br /><br />The violence aggravated after the tahsildar told the villagers that Maharashtra government wouldn’t pay any compensation to the victims’ families.<br /><br />Sources said that the villagers did not accept the funeral assistance offered by the tahsildar and cremated the deceased on the banks of River Bhima.<br /><br />When contacted, Bijapur SP Ram Nivas Sepat told Deccan Herald that no case has been registered at any police station in the district as the incident occurred in Maharashtra.<br /><br /></p>
