Three drown as coracle capsizes

Three friends drowned in a pond near Neralekere village in the taluk on Wednesday.

The victims have been identified as Naveen Kumar (35), Kerekodi Mohan (25) and Chikkavalagamadi Rajendra Kumar (36). The fourth person Dodavalagamadi Shivaraj managed to swim to safety.

All the four had been to the pond to catch fish in a coracle. They lost balance and the coracle capsized. According to onlookers, since all three were in an inebriated state, they drowned.

Employed in Bengaluru, they would travel from Bangarpet by train. Owing to technical error in the railway line on Wednesday, the train was delayed by three hours and thereby got cancelled. The fire personnel have retrieved the bodies.