Indian toddler drowns in jacuzzi on Nepal holiday

KATHMANDU - A summer vacation in Nepal turned into bleak tragedy for an Indian couple from Bihar with their three-year-old daughter drowning in a jacuzzi in an upmarket resort.

Vikash Agrawal, a Marwari trader based in Raxaul town in India’s Bihar state, had planned to take a summer break in Nepal with his family and friends.

Accompanied by his wife, son and daughter Vanita as well as a friend, his wife and their two children, the group of eight Indian tourists reached Kathmandu across the border Saturday.

Agrawal, a trader, has an office in Nepal’s Birgunj town across the border and like many Marwari traders in the Indo-Nepal border area, speaks Nepali fluently.

Police said the group began sightseeing from Sunday, travelling to Nagarkot town in nearby Bhaktapur district, a popular tourist haunt due to its picturesque scenery.

They checked into the luxurious Club Himalaya resort where the Agrawals asked the staff to start the jacuzzi.

While the four parents were taking a break, the children, left to their own devices, began to stray.

The three-year-old toddler, unseen by anyone, wandered off into the jacuzzi and fell in.

She was not missed for nearly half an hour. When a search began, one of the other three children saw her in the jacuzzi and informed the adults.

Her father pulled her out and tried to revive her. When resuscitation efforts failed, she was rushed to the Bhaktapur Hospital, where she was declared dead.

Arjun Budathoki at the hospital told IANS an autopsy had been performed and the results indicated death due to drowning.

The stunned Agrawals’ happy vacation plans ended in disarray. The weeping family were headed for a different destination Monday: the Pashupatnath temple in Kathmandu where the dead toddler’s last rites were performed at the Arya Ghat, the cremating ground for Hindus.

(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)