Woman ends life after son goes missing in Karnataka's Bhadra River

Kalasa, Chikkamagaluru: A woman in Karnataka ended her life on Thursday night, unable to cope with the disappearance of her son whose pickup vehicle had plunged into the Bhadra River on Thursday.

The incident occurred near Kolamage on the Kalasa–Kalakodu road, where the pickup vehicle driven by Ganapathikatte Shamanth (22) veered off the road and fell into the Bhadra River around noon. Despite search efforts, Shamanth remained untraceable till late evening.

His mother, Rathnakala (45), who rushed to the accident site and searched desperately for her son, was devastated by the incident. Rathnakala , a supervisor who employed labourers in coffee estates, had purchased a pickup vehicle for her son six months ago, to help in ferrying labourers to the coffee plantations.

It is suspected that she ended her life by suicide by jumping into a lake near her house at around 10.30 pm on Thursday. A pall of gloom has descended on Ganapathikatte village following the deaths of both mother and son. The search operation for Shamanth, however, continues.