The survivors, who are recuperating in hospital, claimed they were completing the last rites in the Hooghly when the high tide took them by surprise but locals alleged the six men were taking selfies in the water disregarding repeated warnings by authorities of the approaching high tide.
Two teams of the Kolkata Police’s Disaster Management Group consisting of six divers each searched for the three missing men for over two hours after the incident and again for several hours on Tuesday.
According to North Port Police, a 72-year-old man had passed away at Shibtala Lane in Beliaghata on Monday evening. Around 40 people – relatives and friends of the deceased and his son – arrived at the crematorium a little after 10pm.
An officer said that a few of the 40 people who arrived at the crematorium decided to wait at the ghat while the body was being cremated. “At that point, the water level was low. Closer to 11pm, we made announcements of approaching high tide, our routine job,” he added.
“These men were chatting at the ghat and a couple were inebriated. Some of the locals and I warned them to stay away from the lowest steps of the ghat. A few heeded the advice but these six men ignored us,” claimed Jagdish Shaw, who lives nearby.
Cops said as the high tide approached, the water level rose suddenly, sweeping away the six men. “One of them held on to an iron beam and managed to swim to safety. Two others – Gopal Sahu Gond (35) and Amit Roy (18) – were rescued by their neighbours and locals. But Vicky Gupta Singh (29), Santosh Sonkar (45) and Dipak Yadav (27) – could not be traced in the dark,” said an officer. Santosh’s body was recovered on Tuesday morning.
“Around 10.55am, some children playing near Ahiritola Ghat spotted two bodies floating in water. One was retrieved, but the other could not be spotted again,” said Shyam Yadav, a relative of Santosh.
