MAYAPUR, W. Bengal (The Telegraph of India): A 30-year-old engineer drowned in the Bhagirathi yesterday after pulling his sister to safety. 

R. Harish Kumar Aiyar, a mechanical engineer with a Delhi company, and his family were visiting the Iskcon temple in Nadia’s Mayapur, about 100 km from Calcutta. 

“It was very hot yesterday. So we decided to take a dip in the river though neither of us can swim.” said his sister Geeta.

 “We were bathing near the bank when I slipped. I shouted for my brother. He lunged into the water and caught hold of me. He pulled me near the bank, but he, too, slipped and disappeared,” she said, breaking down.

 Geeta raised an alarm and local residents rushed in and alerted some fishermen who were around. The Iskcon authorities asked villagers to look for Harish and police, too, arrived. But Harish’s body could not be found.

 “This is a tragic incident. The Aiyar family is now confined to their room in the temple guesthouse and is praying,” said Ramesh Das, the Iskcon public relations manager. 

“We are searching but are not very hopeful of finding him alive,” said Pradyut Banerjee, the inspector-in-charge of Nabadwip police station.