Juhu drowning incident: Bodies of two of four boys feared drowned in sea found

Over the last few months, several incidents of drowning have been reported in the city. Pic/PTI

Authorities in Mumbai on Tuesday said that the rescuers have found the bodies of two of the four boys who went missing in the sea off Mumbai's Juhu Koliwada.

According to a civic official, the bodies of 16-year-old Dharmesh Valji Faujiya and 15-year-old Shubham Yogesh Bhogniya have been recovered.

According to news agency PTI, the two were part of a group of five friends, aged between 12 and 16 years, who ventured into the sea, about half a kilometre from the shore, around 5.30 pm on Monday but could not return.

While one of them was rescued, the others were feared drowned.

An official said two of the four missing boys were found on Tuesday. They were sent to the civic-run Cooper Hospital where doctors declared them brought dead.
The Fire Brigade suspended the search operation due to darkness and bad weather around 11 pm on Monday. Before that, a Navy chopper was pressed into service at 8.20 pm.

Authorities have already warned people and fishermen against venturing into the sea because of the rough conditions ahead of the landfall of cyclone 'Biparjoy' on the Gujarat coast on June 15.

Meanwhile, a 40-year-old man drowned in a lake at Shirgaon at Virar East on Monday morning. Police told mid-day that 5-6 friends had gone to the lake for swimming on Monday morning when the incident happened. The Virar police registered the Accidental Death Report (ADR) and started an investigation into this matter. The deceased was identified as Vinod Bistur Koli, a resident of Arnala village. Deceased Koli was an Executive Chairman of the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi party and a close relative of ex-mayor Rajiv Patil.

Over the last few months, several incidents of drowning have been reported in the city.

On April 23, in a separate incident, a 12-year-old boy allegedly drowned in the Mahim area, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had said. The civic body, in a statement, said that the drowning incident was reported to the BMC following which the rescue teams including the Mumbai Fire Brigade were immediately rushed to the spot and a rescue operation was launched at the site.

In another such incident on March 7, a 30-year-old youth -- identified as Ravindra Chandrakant Pangare -- died as he drowned off Mumbai Juhu beach. Though the youth was rescued by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's Lifeguard and was taken to Cooper Hospital in Mumbai, but the youth had already died. The doctors declared it a case of 'brought dead'.

Earlier in November 2022, two children died after drowning and three others were rescued by locals in Worli. An 8-year-old Kartik Choudhary and a 12-year-old Savita Pal, were declared brought dead on arrival by the doctors after they were shifted to a nearby hospital.

In similar incidents, other than Mumbai, in Andhra Pradesh in February 2023, six men drowned in a pond in Toderu village in Nellore district. The six were part of a 10-member group that entered the pond on Sunday, police said, adding four of them managed to escape to safety.