Karwar: 6 bodies have been found today, a day after a boat capsized near Korumgadh island in the Arabian sea in Karwar on Monday. With this, the death toll has risen to 16 and so far 14 bodies have been recovered. The search operation is underway for the remaining two bodies.

A group of 35 people in a boat were returning to Karwar coast after participating in a religious festival held at Korumgadh, when a heavy tide capsized their boat.

Around 8 bodies were recovered on the same day. 19 were rescued including 10 who managed to swim their way to safety. Bodies of 6 of the remaining 8 missing were recovered today and hunt for remaining two missing is underway.

Among the deceased, a group of 9 persons belong to one family, who are identified as follows:

Parsappa Basavanappa (38), Bharathi Parsappa (35), Sanjivni Parsappa (15), Saujanya Parsappa (12), Sandeep Parsappa (10), Manjawwa Somappa (25),  Kiran Somappa (4), Arun Somappa (2.5), Keerthi Somappa (6). 

Son of Parsappa, Ganesh Parsappa (16), was rescued in the incident, and has been admitted in Karwar government hospital.  The bodies of Sandeep Parsappa and Keerti Parsappa are yet to be traced.

The other recovered dead bodies are identified as Ganapathi Kotkar (67) of  Kadwad in Karwar, Meenakshi Kotkar (55), Shreyas Raju Pawaskar (25), Geeta Hulaswar (23) of Karwar, Rajni Janmodaya Talekar of Goa, Nilesh R Petnekar (38) of Kajubagh, Karwar and Annakka yamnurappa (54) of Koppal.

It may be noted that Navy personnel, coast guard and coastal security police under the guidance of Uttar Kannada DC SS Nakul and SP Vinayak Patil had launched search operation today since the early hours. Helicopter was also pressed into service to aid the search and rescue mission. 

Sources said that no person in the boat was wearing a life jacket when the mishap took place. Besides, more passengers than the allowed capacity of the boat were said to be onboard, as per preliminary investigations. 

It is learnt that a case has been registered at Karwar rural police station against boat owner and driver and both were arrested.