Karatoa boat capsize: Body recovered after 1.5 months

Police have recovered the decomposing body of a man, one-and-a-half month after he went missing when the boat, he was on capsized in the Karatoa river in Boda upazila of Panchagarh.

The deceased has been identified as Bhupendra Nath Barman (42), a resident of Hatidoba-Chhatrashikarpur area of Debiganj upazila, our Thakurgaon correspondent reports quoting Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Boda Police Station Sujoy Kumar Roy.

So far, 70 bodies have been recovered in the boat capsize incident.

The body was found buried under the riverbed about 50m south of the boat capsize site at Aulia Ghat area of Madea Bamanhat union of the upazila this afternoon (November 9, 2022).

After the recovery, relatives identified the body as that of Bhupendra Nath Barman, who was missing since the incident.

Bhupendra Nath Barman (42), and Rupali Rani (36), were crossing the river with their three-year-old son Dipu on September 25 to attend Mahalaya festivities.

After the incident, the child was rescued, but the parents went missing.

Rupali Rani's body was recovered the next day, but after one and a half months, the body of the missing father was recovered.

Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Boda Police Station Sujoy Kumar Roy told The Daily Star that relatives of Bhupendra Nath Barman confirmed the identity of the recovered body after looking at his clothes. Besides, the sim of a mobile phone found with the body was turned on confirming his identity further.

Dipan Chandra Barman, 17, the eldest son of the deceased Bhupendra Nath Barman, said, "We rushed to the bank of the river after getting information that a body was found in the river. Later, when I saw the clothes on the body, I realised that this was my father's body."

Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Boda Police Station Sujoy Kumar Roy told The Daily Star over the phone that the relatives of Bhupendra Nath Barman confirmed that the body belonged to Bhupendra after looking at the clothes. Besides, the sim of a mobile phone found with the body was turned on and it was confirmed that the body belonged to Bhupendra Nath Barman.

According to the list of the district administration, two more are missing in the boat capsize.