Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Nov 8: All the eight persons, who lost their lives on Monday due to quirks of fate, were members of poor families, which had pinned high hopes on them. Although both the incidents happened on Monday November 6, they came into the open on Tuesday November 7 morning.

Five teenagers met watery grave in River Phalguni at Moolarapatna in Bantwal taluk while three security staff sleeping in K C Road branch of Kotekar Agricultural Service Cooperative Bank died when in sleep reportedly on account of inhalation of fumes from the generator.

The spot where the boys drowned had become notorious after two persons drowned there, one when running away from the police, and the other, during the immersion of Goddess Sharada idol. K C Road branch of Kotekar cooperative bank had hogged headlines after robbers had almost fled with gold ornaments worth Rs 3.5 crore stored in the strong room after confining staff in a toilet on January 23 this year, but the thieves had turned jittery and were forced to flee, duly leaving behind the ornaments loaded in a gunny bag after the jewel appraiser pelted a stone at them.

Out of the boys who drowned in the river, Aslam was the son of Ashraf, a coolie by profession, while Ajmal's father is a scrap merchant. Savad had stopped his education and was working in a bakery to help his family. The body of Mudassir was found on Tuesday night. Postmortem was conducted in the government hospital at Bantwal.

The three who lost their lives at the bank were permanent security staff, Umesh, Somanath from a private security agency, and Santosh, another security personnel of the same agency. Santosh had come there by oversight, as he forgot that Somanath had been told to guard the bank that day. Santosh, who was to work as security staff at Deralakatte branch of Kotekar Bank that night, arrived at K C Road and because of heavy rain and decided to stay there for the night.

Out of the security personnel who died in the incident, Umesh, who was earlier engaged as coolie, had chosen to become a security staff as he found it difficult to work hard. He was the sole breadwinner of his family, and has left behind wife and two sons. Santosh is survived by wife, who works as tailor to support family income, and a daughter who is in sixth standard. Somanath, who had lost his house on account of high expansion, was living with wife in rented house. He was earlier an auto rickshaw driver, and had begun to work as security man since a year. His family had lost two members including his wife about a month back.