On a day when as many as five drowning tragedies were reported in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), bodies of three missing boys who had ventured into the rough monsoon sea at Marve jetty on Sunday were found. The deceased-Nikhil Kayampur, Ajay Harijan and Shubham Jaiswal, all aged 14 -had entered the waters with two other friends who survived. In Thane, which saw much rain on Monday as did the rest of MMR, five friends’ swimming expedition in Upwan lake proved fatal for Aditya Pawar (17), a college student, who drowned. His body was brought out almost three hours later. In Pabal village, under the Pen taluka of Raigad, two brothers from Theronda village of Alibag taluka drowned near a check dam opening on Monday afternoon while on a picnic. When Elan Waskar (25) slipped into the water, Isarel (23) tried to pull him out but was swept away by the strong current. The duo did not know how to swim, said Vadkhal police. In Raigad’s Khalapur taluka, the body of Dharavi’s Vinod Gajakosh (44), a BMC sanitation staffer, was retrieved from Nadhal dam on Monday morning. Gajakosh, part of an 11-member group on a picnic, drowned around 4pm on Sunday. Khalapur tehsildar Ayub Tamboli said the intoxicated picnickers had allegedly torn the warning sign installed around the dam. ‘A prohibitory order restricting unauthorised entry to the dam area is already in force,’ said Tamboli. In Virar, Om Borade (11) drowned while his friends, Ansh (11) and Vansh (12), were rescued from the Papad Khind dam on Sunday. Borade’s parents, who had accompanied the children, raised an alarm and alerted locals. While they managed to pull out Ansh and Vansh in time, Borade drowned. Meanwhile, following the Marve deaths, grieving families gathered at Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital in Kandivli where the bodies were brought. ‘Nikhil and Shubham studied at the same school, St Anthony’s in Malad. They were good friends,’ said Jaiswal’s brother. One of the youngsters had gone to wash his legs in the seawater after a game of football when it got stuck in the sand and he fell. Seeing him being swept away, his friends jumped in to help. Families alleged there was no lifeguard at the beach. Locals managed to rescue two of the boys- Krushna Harijan and Ankush Shivare. Later, rescue teams, including divers from the Navy, launched a search for the missing boys. Find more information in the full article.