Abu Dhabi resident engineer, son drown in Kerala river while celebrating Onam
Onam is the happiest occasion for Keralites spread all over the world, but for an Indian engineer working in Abu Dhabi and his family, this Onam (last Friday) was a day of tragedy.
A expat Indian engineer of Abu Dhabi, who went home to celebrate Onam with his son and other family members in Kerala, drowned in a river in Kerala’s Palakkad district on Friday.
The deceased, in his 50s, worked in a steel manufacturing company in the UAE capital.
His 22-year-old son also drowned in the Karimbuzha river.
The deceased father and son are P M C Anujan Namboodiripad, 52, and his son Arun, 22, of Panakkad Mana of Sreekrishnapuram in Palakkad.
The tragic incident happened at 5.30pm on Thiruvonam day (Friday).
The family’s members had gone to the river bank near the Karimbuzha temple near Ottappalam to take a bath in the river.
When Arun, who was bathing, suddenly disappeared and apparently drowned, his father jumped into the deep river to rescue him.
Other family members and onlookers retrieved Anujan from the river and rushed him to a hospital, but he died later.
Civil Defence and a rescue team searched for the missing son and retrieved his body after ten minutes, according to the Malayalam newspaper ‘Mathrubhoomi’.
The newspaper said that the father and son drowned because the river had been deepened by sand mining.
Arun had completed his engineering degree and was doing his BBA and looking for a job.
He lived with his mother Jayashree Antharjanam in Mumbai and had gone to Kerala for Onam.
His father Anujan Namboodiripad had come from UAE to Kerala to attend the engagement ceremony of his brother’s daughter and also to participate in this year’s Onam celebrations.
