Mysore toll 31,police baton charge after villagers block roads

Twenty-eight people, most of them women, drowned when their van fell into a lake near Kadakola on the Mysore- Nanjangud Road yesterday. They were returning home after attending a marriage feast in a nearby village.

However, the relatives, who had attended the wedding feast in Nanjangud found that some more persons were missing. They reported the same to the authorities, after their hopes that these four might have returned home safely, proved wrong.

The police and the fire brigade personnel swung into action and recovered three bodies.
Meanwhile, Kadakola saw angry demonstration by irate villagers, who protested against the condition of the roads and put up the road blockade over the issue. Police resorted to baton charge and burst tear gas shells to disperse them.

The villagers of Aralukuppe, near Pandavapura in Mandya district arranged a mass funeral of the deceased on a government land in the village this morning.

Meanwhile, sources said that while the tempo was drifting after it plunged into the lake, the driver carried a four-year old baby girl, who was sitting close by and jumped out for safety.

He left the girl and fled from the scene fearing he would be lynched. However, the child's mother had died in the accident.