Kota Canal Boat Capsize: Four Young Men Dead After Durga Idol Immersion at a Prohibited Spot; Boatman Booked

What happened

On the evening of Tuesday, 20 October 2026, a small wooden boat carrying seven people capsized in the middle of the Chambal right main canal, known locally as the Kotri or Kotdi canal, in Kota, Rajasthan. The group had taken a Durga idol onto the water to immerse it. Three of the seven swam out. The other four went under. All four were found dead on the morning of Wednesday, 21 October, about 18 hours after the accident (Hindustan Times, ABP News, PTI-Bhasha). Early on 21 October, Amar Ujala and Rajasthan Patrika had reported two bodies recovered and two young men still missing.

Reports place the spot near the steel bridge on 80 Feet Road, in the area covered by Borkheda police station (ETV Bharat, IANS). Free Press Journal names Udyog Nagar police station instead, and India TV mentions the Nag-Nagin temple. The time was about 5.30 p.m. (Rajasthan Patrika, India TV). The group came from Sanjay Nagar in the Vigyan Nagar area. According to eyewitnesses quoted by IANS, three people sat on each side and the idol was placed in the centre, with the boatman steering. Kota City Superintendent of Police Tejaswini Gautam said the boat lost its balance in the middle of the canal. Palpal India, which is a single source for this detail, reported that the idol was about four feet tall and the boat tilted as it was being lowered.

The boat was a local fishermen’s boat, District Collector Piyush Samariya told reporters. Palpal India says fishermen at this canal ghat take money to carry idols out to deep water, and that the canal sees immersions every year after Ganesh Utsav and Navratri. ETV Bharat English reported that water had been released into the canal two days earlier, at about 2,000 cusecs, and described the flow as fairly low. Hindustan Times and Dainik Rajeev Times say instead that water was released on Tuesday, the day of the accident, so the release date is contested. Rajasthan Patrika says there are stoppers on the canal downstream.

The people

Seven were aboard, according to the Collector, the City SP, SDRF in-charge Ekta Hada and Amar Ujala. Aaj Tak and India TV gave early counts of six. A woman and a young man swam out, along with the boatman, according to Rajasthan Patrika and IANS. Four drowned.

Their ages are reported differently. Early reports from IANS and ETV Bharat Hindi called all of them “children” or “bachche”, while the Collector said they were around 20. Rajasthan Patrika gave the ages of the four who drowned as 19, 18, 22 and 22. So they were mostly young adults, with the youngest 18 or 19, not small children. Times Now Navbharat and ETV Bharat Hindi reported that the two who were still missing on the morning of 21 October were cousins from Sanjay Nagar, aged 18 and 19; the other two who died were both 22 (Rajasthan Patrika, Hindustan Times, PTI-Bhasha). The outlets also use different names and nicknames for the four, and the early English lists differ from the Hindi lists. Several outlets, citing police, have since published the four names. We are still not repeating them here, out of respect for the families.

Response and investigation

SDRF, NDRF, Kota Municipal Corporation divers and Civil Defence teams reached the canal. India TV and Free Press Journal put the SDRF strength at 15 to 17 personnel at first. The Collector, the City SP, Additional District Magistrate Ravi Verma and Education Minister Madan Dilawar reached the spot. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, who was in Kota for the Dussehra programme, came to the canal at night, spoke to the families and directed the administration to widen the search and to look at the stopper points on the canal. Rajasthan Patrika says he also told the Collector to inquire into the causes. The canal water supply was stopped to slow the current.

The search was halted at about 11.30 p.m. because of the dark (ETV Bharat Hindi) and resumed at 5.30 to 6 a.m. on Wednesday. Two bodies were found downstream of the spot where the boat capsized; reports put the distance at about 50 metres (ETV Bharat Hindi), 100 metres (Amar Ujala, Rajasthan Patrika) and 200 to 300 metres (Times Now Navbharat). ETV Bharat Hindi says both had been recovered by about 9.30 a.m. and taken to MBS Hospital. SDRF in-charge Ekta Hada said six rescue boats were searching towards Umedganj, with one boat for about every 2 km over a stretch of 7 to 8 km (Rajasthan Patrika, Amar Ujala). The two cousins were found later in the morning, which brought the toll to four. Additional Superintendent of Police Subhash Chandra Mishra told PTI-Bhasha that local divers found the other two within an hour of the first pair, and that all four bodies lay about 100 to 200 metres from the spot. Additional District Magistrate Vikas Malhotra confirmed to Hindustan Times that all four had been recovered; Hindustan Times says they were taken to MBS Hospital for post-mortem. Reports differ on when the night search stopped, at about 10.30 p.m. (Jagmarg, Dainik Rajeev Times) or 11.30 p.m. (ETV Bharat Hindi, PTI-Bhasha).

Permission and designated points. Minister Dilawar said this stretch is prohibited for idol immersion and that arrangements had been made at the Kishorpura ghat, with no designated ghat at this spot, so there was no security cover here. He also said the boat was unsafe and that such boats are not allowed to ply. City SP Gautam said the administration fixes designated sites where boats, divers and SDRF are stationed, that it is not possible to cover every point along the entire canal, and that people choose other spots to save the trip. Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Vyas of the municipal corporation said the municipal teams were at the designated site, not at this one. Palpal India and ETV Bharat reported that no guard, diver, boat or crane was present at the spot. Residents protested at the canal bank, saying the rescue was late; ETV Bharat and Amar Ujala reported the protest, and Amar Ujala says the minister, who stayed about two hours, faced angry protests.

Case against the boatman, and relief. Borkheda police have registered a case against the boatman for negligence on the families’ complaint, according to ETV Bharat Hindi (updated 5.02 p.m. on 21 October), which quotes the station officer. The sections were not reported. The same report describes the boatman as 60 years old and says he left the spot after the accident and police are looking for him; Dainik Rajeev Times says only that some reports make this claim, and the boatman’s name differs between reports, so we do not give one. We found no report of an arrest. A father of one of the dead said the boat could carry only three people but seven boarded with the idol; that is an allegation by a bereaved family and not a finding. At the mortuary, two fathers refused post-mortems for about two hours and asked for Rs 50 lakh and a government job (ETV Bharat Hindi). The Ladpura tehsildar said it was agreed that Rs 5 lakh would be paid from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund and that the demand for a job would be sent to senior officers; officials told PTI-Bhasha that help would be given as per rules. We found no government order on the amount, so the Rs 5 lakh rests on one outlet’s report of the tehsildar’s words. ETV Bharat Hindi says the administration has begun an inquiry. No inquiry report has been published, and we found no action against the fishermen who run boats at the ghat.

Why this matters

Every year immersion week produces the same pattern: a small group, a heavy idol, an informal spot, no one on the bank who can rescue, and water that looks calm. We have covered it at Sangareddy and on the Sai River near Lucknow. Kota’s problem was in the choice of place and vessel. A canal current keeps moving, and the water carries a person away from the place where he went under. All four bodies were found downstream of the spot, about 100 to 200 metres away according to the police (PTI-Bhasha), and the search ran over several kilometres. On the same evening there were also immersion deaths in Gonda and Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh, according to PTI.

A small wooden boat with seven people and an idol has very little margin. Three of those on board got out; four did not. Friends told ETV Bharat Hindi that one of the four was a good swimmer but that two others clung to him as they went under; we cannot verify that account, but it is why a swimmer should throw something that floats and not jump in. Swimming in clothes, in the evening, in a canal that was being fed with fresh water is very different from swimming in a pool.

Lessons

• Use only the designated immersion point. Ask the municipal corporation or district administration for the list of ghats and the timings, and go where the boats, divers and SDRF are stationed. Our guide to safe idol immersion has a checklist for families and organisers.
• Do not take idols out on a small boat. A fishing or country boat is not built to carry a heavy idol and many people. If the arrangement at the designated point is a platform, a crane or a tank, use that. Keep the number of people on any boat to what the boatman and the authority allow, and no one should stand or lean to lower an idol.
• Wear a life jacket, even if you can swim. Every person who goes on to the water for an immersion should have a properly fitting life jacket. Non-swimmers and anyone under 18 should stay on the bank.
• Avoid immersing in the evening. A search stops when the light goes, as it did here. Plan the immersion for daylight so that rescuers can see.
• Keep children and elderly relatives well back from the edge. A canal bank is steep and slippery. Assign one adult to watch the group at the water.
• Organisers: tell the authority beforehand. Give the number of idols and people, and ask for barricades, light, divers and a rescue boat if you plan to immerse near a canal or a river.
• If someone goes under, do not jump in after them. Call 112 at once, with the landmark. Dial 108 for an ambulance and 101 for the fire brigade, which also carries rescue teams in many cities. Throw a rope, a life ring, an empty water can or any floating object. Our guide on helping a drowning person, linked below, explains how to do this without becoming the next victim.
• Know the local control rooms. The district disaster control room and the state disaster management control room run helplines that can send SDRF. Save them in your phone before the festival. Check the number on the district website, since the numbers are not the same everywhere.
• Bystanders: help the rescuers, not the crowd. Keep the canal bank clear so that boats and ambulances can reach it. Do not shout names or push to the edge, since this slows rescue teams.

More on Kota: see our Kota fire and emergency safety guide for emergency numbers and the local risks to know.

What is still not known

Updated 22 October 2026, about 10.30 am IST. All four young men who were missing have been found dead, and every report we opened on 21 October gives a toll of four. We do not know the exact spot on the canal, the number of people the boat was allowed to carry, whether the boatman held any permission, which sections the case against him was registered under, or whether the police have traced him. We have no official order on relief and no inquiry report. We will update this page when the administration releases an official statement or the inquiry ordered by the Speaker reports.