PANJIM: The family members of a 19-year-old Derrick Raj, a native of Andheri (East), Mumbai, who drowned in an abandoned stone quarry at Shirven-Chimbel on Sunday, had to hire private divers to trace the body as government agencies were ill-equipped to do so.
“We launched the search operation at 5:30 pm on Sunday but abandoned it due to darkness. The search operation was taken up on Monday morning but the body could not be traced. However, it was traced by the divers, who were hired by the family members. We do not have divers. We have other equipment but not divers. The stone quarry is deep and the water is not clean which made it difficult to trace the body,” Old Goa Station Fire Officer (SFO) Ganesh Govekar told O Heraldo.
Meanwhile, the Old Goa Police have registered a case of unnatural death under section 174 CrPC in this connection.
According to Old Goa police, Derrick along with seven others had gone to the stone quarry for an outing when one of the girls decided to take a plunge into the waters. She, however, started drowning as the water was deep and Derrick along with another friend Abner jumped into the quarry to rescue her.
While Abner and the other girl struggled and managed to swim back to safety, Derrick, however, failed to come out of the quarry.
Derrick had arrived in Goa along with his cousin on holidays and were staying with their relatives at Merces. Raj was a student at Tolani’s where he was doing his FYBCom. Derrick was born on 31 May, 2005 and was a studious and warm child always ready to lend a helping hand to anyone in need.
The police later conducted the panchanama and sent thebody to the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Bambolim for post-mortem examination. The body was flown to Mumbai and the funeral mass will be held on November 21, at the Holy Family Church, Andheri.
Police Sub-Inspector Sudan Redkar is investigating the case.