Four persons drowned when a boat capsized in the Ganga, near Prabhakar Ghat, here, on Monday. As the boat carrying six persons capsized, two people were rescued.
A senior police officer said that five persons from Tundala were on a visit to Varanasi. They went to a ghat and hired a boat for boating. As the boat reached the middle of the Ganga near Prabhu Ghat, water began filling in the boat through a hole in its bottom.
The boat capsized and all six people, including the boatman, started drowning. With the help of other boatmen and the NDRF personnel, two people – Keshaw Kumar, 32 and Pawan, 27 – were rescued, while four others were drowned.
The deceased were identified as Sanjay, 36, Anas, 22, Imamuddin, 30, all residents of Tundala, and Sunny, 26, a resident of Shivala Ghat Varanasi who was a sailor.
Financial assistance of ₹2 lakh each has been announced to the families of the four deceased from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, said district magistrate, Varanasi, Kaushal Raj Sharma.