JHAPA: Three boys drowned in a pond in Kamaldhap, in Bhadrapur Municipality, Jhapa, on Thursday.

According to the District Police Office spokesperson, Ankush Tamang (10), Karan Thami (14) and his brother Arjun Thami (12) of Ward No 2 of Bhadrapur drowned after they fell into a pond dug on the proposed Kamaldhap Tourism and Basin Area construction site in Prithvinagar in Bhadrapur-2.

Locals have attributed the deaths to the negligence of the contractor company entrusted to dig the pond.

The three minors had gone to the site to fish and swim on Wednesday afternoon. As they didn’t return till the evening, their kin started searching for them. In course of the search, police fished out their bodies from the pond.

While the kin of Ankush Tamang have received his body and have taken it to Mechi Zonal Hospital for post-mortem, the kin of Thami brothers have refused to receive their bodies until action is taken against the contractor company.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 24, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.