Three of family die as car falls into canal in Telangana

Naveen S Garewal

Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, February 15

Within days of a car falling into the Sri Ram Sagar Project (SRSP) canal, tragedy struck the family of a lawyer when their car fell into the canal killing three of the family.

The lawyer’s son had a miraculous escape. The incident took place on wee hours of Monday near Medipally village in Jagtial district of Telangana.

The victims have been identified as a lawyer, Katkurwar Amarendar Rao (50), his wife Shirisha (48), daughter Shreya (21). The son Jayanth (18) swam to safety. According to him, the family was on their way to a local fair at a temple known as the Joginipali temple.

The son is believed to be driving the vehicle and he lost control making the car ram into the railing and then plunged into the canal and drown.

Amarendar Rao is a close relative of local MLA Dr Sanjay Kumar and was working as a lawyer with a senior advocate Hanumantha Rao, who is the father of the MLA. He was a resident of Housing board colony in Jagitial town.

Police said that Shreya’s marriage was scheduled for May 21 and the family had decided to go for a pilgrimage as part of thanksgiving and to pray for a happy married life.

According to sources, the four left their home around 4.30 am but as the car was crossing the SRSP canal the driver lost control, as a result, the car veered off the road, fell into the SRSP Canal and sank. After being alerted by Rao's son, police reached the spot and retrieved the bodies of the three.

This is the second such incident in this canal in less than a week. Three people had died in a similar accident last week when the driver of the car tried to avoid hitting a two-wheeler in the Warangal Rural district stretch of the canal on February 10.