One of the two teenage girls, who were swept away while bathing in the Indrawati River in Melamchi Rural Municipality-11 of Sindhupalchowk, has been found dead. The other teenager is still missing.
The two teenagers who were bathing in the river were suddenly swept away by the river at around 4:20 pm on Monday.
According to the Bagmati Province Police Office, Hetauda, upon receiving information about the drowning, a 7-member team under the command of Police Inspector Yogesh Kharel was immediately deployed from the Area Police Office, Melamchi.
During the search and rescue, Nirjala Giri, 18, daughter of Kumar Giri, resident of Melamchi-9, was found dead on the bank of the river about 1 kilometer downstream from the incident site.
Police confirmed that once the necessary paperwork was finalized, her body was moved to Melamchi Municipal Hospital for a postmortem examination.
Similarly, Anjita Joti, 14, daughter of Nirmal Joti, resident of Panchpokhari Thangpal Rural Municipality-6, is yet to be found.
The police said that the search for him is ongoing.
During the incident, Bir Bahadur Rai, 49, a native of Chitwan and currently residing in Tarkeshwor-4, Kathmandu, who tried to save the girls, also fell ill after drowning in the river. He has been discharged after treatment at Melamchi Municipal Hospital.
The deceased Nirjala is the daughter of her maternal uncle, while the missing Anjita is the daughter of her paternal aunt.
According to Nirjala's uncle Rimlal Giri, Nirjala had been living with her maternal aunt since she was a child. Her mother died when she was 3 years old and her father also disappeared a few years later, so her maternal aunt took care of her.
They had been studying in Kathmandu and had gone to Sindhupalchowk to obtain citizenship.
Anjita's father had brought both Anjita and Nirjala to the village to obtain citizenship.
"They arrived yesterday, saying they would arrange the remaining documents and call me once everything was finalized," Nirjala’s uncle, Rimlal, told Nepalkhabar. "She is my own niece. Her mother passed away when she was only three, and her father is missing. They were staying at the hotel, waiting to contact me once her citizenship was processed. This tragedy happened when she went to the river in the afternoon to escape the heat."
A joint team of Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and Nepal Army has been deployed to the scene since Tuesday morning to search for the missing girl, and search and rescue operations have been intensified, according to the District Police Office, Sindhupalchowk.
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