Four school students drown at Murudeshwar Beach, CM Siddaramaiah announces Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia
Karwar, Karnataka: Four class nine girl students from a residential school drowned in the sea at Murudeshwar in Uttara Kannada district, during an educational tour, police said on Wednesday.
A group of 46 students and six teachers from Morarji Desai Residential School, Mulabagilu in Kolar district visited Murudeshwar on Tuesday as part of their school trip.
According to the police, around 5.30 pm, the teachers, along with the students went to the beach.
Despite warnings from lifeguards, seven students ventured into the sea. The sea was rough, and three girls were swept away by the current, while another girl died on the spot.
The remaining three students were rescued with the help of lifeguards and other agencies. They were immediately taken to the hospital and are now reported to be out of danger, a senior police officer said.
A search operation involving lifeguards, home guards, fishermen, and police recovered the bodies of the three girls feared drowned on Wednesday morning.
"We have registered a case under Section 106 (Causing death by negligence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and arrested all six teachers in connection with the incident," said Narayana M, Superintendent of Police, Uttara Kannada.
The teachers were later released on station bail, he added.
The deceased girls, aged 15, have been identified as Shravanti, Deeksha, Lavanya, and Lipika. Police confirmed that post-mortem examinations were completed, and arrangements are being made to send the bodies to their hometowns.
Expressing his condolence to the bereaved parents, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the deceased students.
Taking to the social media platform 'X', he said, "The families of the four students who died in the accident will be given a compensation of Rs 5 lakh each by the state government. I have spoken to the Deputy Commissioner of Uttara Kannada district and suggested making arrangements to transport the bodies to their hometowns."
He emphasised the need for greater caution by teachers during trips. "Children should be supervised while visiting dangerous places. I understand the pain of parents who have lost their children. I pray such incidents never happen again," he added.
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Shami underwhelming as Bengal go down to Baroda in SMAT quarterfinals; MP in semis
Bengaluru, Dec 11: Pacer Mohammed Shami rarely operated at his best and it had a cascading effect on Bengal as they went down by 41 runs against Baroda in the quarterfinals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy here on Wednesday.
Opener Shashwat Rawat top-scored with a 26-ball 40 (1x4, 3x6) as Baroda posted a competitive 172 for seven, and Bengal ended up with 131 all out despite Shahbaz Ahmed (55, 36b, 3x4, 4x6) playing a fine cameo.
Skipper Hardik Pandya (3/27) along with his pace colleagues Lukeman Merriwala (3/17) and Atit Sheth (3/41) were the lead bowlers in Baroda's stroll into the semifinals.
Shami's outing was more in focus as the seasoned quick has been striving hard to join the Indian squad in Australia at least for the last two Tests of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
His overall numbers ahead of this match was 11 wickets from eight matches at an economy rate of 7.8, but on this day Shami looked anything but sharp.
He started with two wides in the first over and hardly looked in control of the proceedings for the rest of his spell.
The 34-year-old clocked deliveries around 140 clicks across two spells and bowled a few yorkers, but generally struggled to zoom in on the stumps as he often does.
Shivalik Sharma (24, 17b) clobbered him for two successive sixes, though one was an edge that flew behind the third man.
Shami got two consolation wickets of Shivalik and Atit Sheth towards the end when Baroda was trying to accelerate.
Shami could not make any impact with the bat either falling for a two-ball duck to India teammate Hardik Pandya.
Later, Baroda pacer Merriwala derailed Bengal's chase taking three wickets in the fourth over.
Merriwala got rid of in-form Karan Lal, skipper Sudip Kumar Gharami and Writtick Chatterjee, who fell to a sensational tumbling return catch.
Shahbaz tried to resurrect Bengal's innings towards the backend but there was no real support for him.
MP in semis
In the other quarterfinals at Alur, Madhya Pradesh rode on the all-round show of Venkatesh Iyer to enter the last four with a fine six-wicket win over Saurashtra.
Venkatesh took two wickets and made an unbeaten 38 off 33 balls as MP overhauled Saurashtra's 173 for seven with four balls to spare.
Brief scores:
At Bengaluru: Baroda: 171/7 in 20 overs (Shashwat Rawat 40, Abhimanyu Rajput 37, Shivalik Sharma 24; Mohammed Shami 2/43, Pradipta Pramanik 2/6) beat
Bengal: 131 all out in 18 overs (Shahbaz Ahmed 55, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury 29; Lukeman Merriwala 3/17, Hardik Pandya 3/27, Atit Sheth 3/41) by 41 runs.
At Alur: Saurashtra: 173/7 in 20 overs (Chirag Jani 80 not out; Venkatesh Iyer 2/23) lost to
Madhya Pradesh: 174/4 in 19.4 overs (Arpit Gaud 42, Venkatesh Iyer 38 not out, Rajat Patidar 28) by 6 wickets.
