Goemkarponn desk
PONDA: In a tragic, heart-wrenching incident that saddened not only Priol but the entire Ponda, the two siblings sister and brother Navya Deepak Naik (10) and Harsh Deepak Naik (3) at Karmale- Querim were reported to be accidentally drowned in the open tank (pond) in Kolagar (Bagayat) located around 15 metres behind their house.
A postmortem report by Hospicio revealed the death due to drowning. However, nobody knows how exactly drowning occurred, whether they slipped into the water or what, as there was no eyewitness to the incident.
Ponda PI Vijaykumar Chodankar speaking to the media said they received a call at 3 pm that two siblings were brought dead at Ponda Sub District Hospital with a postmortem report revealed death due to drowning. Further inquiry revealed that they accidentally drowned in a tank built to supply water for betel nut trees (Kula Ghor) near their house.
He said that Ponda Police are conducting an inquiry into the incident from all angles.
The incident came to light when the father of the children returned home to feed them at around 2.30 pm for lunch, and as he noticed both children were not at home, he asked his brother who is residing in a separate house a few metres distance.
Brother told him that both children left their home after having lunch.
The father, after hearing this, went in search of the children only to find his daughter floating in the pond.
He suspected the son too of drowning in the water and fished him out.
He cried and shouted for him, following which both children were immediately shifted to Ponda Sub District Hospital, where they were declared dead.
It is learnt that both the parent of the children are government servants, with Deepak Naik working in PWD as an accountant while his wife working on a contract basis at Forest Department.
As both parents were at a job, the grandparents used to take their care at home.
However, as surgery was scheduled on his father at Ponda Hospital, the elderly in the family were at Ponda, and the children were at their uncle`s house.
As usual, Navya (10), a second standard student at Primary School in her village, returned from school at 10 am today.
She and her brother took lunch at Uncle`s house and were returning back on the way home when according to locals, they might accidentally be drowned in the water tank behind their house.
The construction of the water tank was in progress and is learnt to be constructed recently to store water of the size of 8x 5 metres with around 2.5 meters height for irrigation to Bagayat trees.
The tank was stored with water however was open.
The postmortem was conducted at Hospicio Hospital Margao, and later bodies were handed over to the family. Ponda PI Vijaykumar Chodankar, DySP Cl Patil and the police team conducted panchanama.
Local MLA and Minister Govind Gaude visited the spot. As the family is in grief, Police are yet to record their statement on the incident.