Six devotees who stepped into a rainy pond in a mining area to immerse goddess Durga Mata’s idol drowned at Nandala Village in Ajmer district on Wednesday evening.
While the seventh devotee was still being searched by divers, SHO of Nasirabad Sadar Thana Hemraj Gurjar told SNS when contacted today.
A group of 30 people of village Nanda-ji-ki-Dhani had marched with the idol for immersion in the rain fed pond in the mining area (illegal) in the afternoon. As the idol could not float on the surface, some of them tried to push it down and moved forward but unfortunately they slipped into the pond.
People who accompanied them tried to save them but six bodies were recovered later with the help of Nasirabad administration which called a rescue team, SHO said.
The deceased were identified as Gajendra, Rahul Meghwal, Lucky, Pawan Kumar, Rahul Raigar, and Shankar Lal (all in the age group of 20-35), SHO said, adding the bodies were sent for postmortem.
A fresh search to locate the seventh devotee was underway since morning today, SHO, who is also supervising the rescue work at the site said.