11 including 4 from Ahmedabad dead, six injured in separate incidents during Ganesha idol immersion in Gujarat

Vadodara/Ahmedabad:

     At least 11 people died and six others injured in different incidents during processions of immersion of Lord Ganesha idols across Gujarat today.

      Of these 9 were caused by drowning while 2 by other reasons. Maximum 5 such death have been reported from Kheda district in Central Gujarat so far. There were some more unconfirmed reports of drowning from various places which might take the toll to an even higher number. Every year such incidents take place during the immersion.
Three youths from Narol area of Ahmedabad who had taken their idols for immersion in Mahi river in Galteshwar area under Thasra taluka of neighbouring Kheda district, drowned this evening in the river while they were taking bath in the river after immersion of idols. Two of them were identified as Ranjit Varma and Shivam Varma. In Devaliya area of Kheda, a middle aged person also died after getting drowned in Mahi river in similar manner while one person died in Surashamal in Nadiad taluka of Kheda.

    One person drowned at the Sabarmati riverfront, a 12 year old boy in Rajkot, a 30 year old man in Meghraj of Aravalli district, one in Chandod of Vadodara district.

In an earlier incident 25 year old Mahendrasinh Ataliya was electrocuted during such a procession in Juna Bazar area in Karjan town of Vadodara district. The procession with music bands and drum beats was moving towards a local water body for immersion of the idol when an overhead electric wire suddenly fell on Mahendra killing him on the spot.

In yet another incident in Aamletha area in Narmada district one person died when a clash between villagers of two villages took place in Navapura village due to alleged eve teasing in the immersion procession.

One Kiranbhai Vasava died in the clash between villagers from Navapura and Kumasgam. Six other injured in the incident of whom three were said to be serious.

In yet another such incident a youth was badly beaten up owing to eve teasing during immersion procession in Rajkot.

Meanwhile elaborate security and safety arrangements were made across the state for immersion which continued till late night and thousands of idols were submerged in water bodies with religious rituals after the over a week long Ganesha Chaturthi festival.

Large number of police, volunteers and teams of fire brigades were deployed on immersion points in river Sabarmati in Ahmedabad.

Looking at the communally sensitive nature of the Vadodara city large number of police and paramilitary forces were deployed there.

In Surat orders for immersion in the sea in Hazira was issued for the large idols owing to lack of water in river Tapi in the city where the mid sized and small idols were immersed.

DeshGujarat