Belagavi, 13 April
A soldier on annual vacation tragically drowned while attempting to rescue a 14-year-old boy from the Malaprabha River in Bagalkot district on Sunday. Both the soldier and the boy lost their lives.

According to Badami Police Inspector KB Banni, the boy, Shekhappa Muttappa Mulimani, an 8th-grade student from Hansanur village, had gone alone to bathe in the river near Manneri village in Badami taluk. Unable to swim and caught in the strong current due to recent rains, he began to drown and screamed for help.

Hearing the cries, Mahantesh Hosamani, a soldier from Gadag, jumped in to save him. He managed to reach the boy, but Shekhappa, panicked and terrified, clung tightly to Mahantesh’s shirt collar. Despite the soldier’s efforts over nearly half an hour, the strong current overwhelmed them both.

Mahantesh, trained at the Maratha Light Infantry Regimental Centre (MLIRC) in Belagavi, was last posted in Poonch, Jammu and Kashmir. His family had planned to arrange his marriage during his vacation.

A case has been registered under Section 194 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with deaths by drowning.