Gujarat: 8 drown in separate incidents in during Holi celebrations

At least eight persons including four teenage boys drowned at various places while taking bath in canals or ponds after playing Holi (also called Dhuleti) in Gujarat on Thursday.

The first incident took place at Rancharda village on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city, where four men from Shilaj village drowned in the Narmada canal early afternoon. Bodies of two men were fished out by the fire department, said inspector R R Chaudhary of Santej police station.

The drowned men were identified as Vinay Parmar, Piyush Shrimali, Jayesh Parmar and Chirag Shrimali, all in the age group of 22-25 years.

"One of them started drowning, so three others jumped in to save him but drowned themselves. Bodies of Vinay and Piyush had been fished out while search was on for other two," he said.

At Zalod town of Dahod district, Pankaj Chauhan (21) and his friend Harshad Mistry (22) drowned in Ram Sagar lake. In Kutch district, Sujal Devnani (11), Rahul Devnani (15), Chandan Mulchandani (13) and Raj Patel (14), all residents of Adipur town, drowned in a small pond in Shinai village near Anjar town at around 3 pm. They had gone their for a bath after playing Dhuleti.

"Bodies have been sent for post mortem," said inspector A N Makwana of Anjar police station.