The search operation, to retrieve the bodies, had taken over a fortnight
Six officials of the Larji Dam Project and three faculty members of an engineering college have been named in a charge-sheet over the Beas river tragedy in Himachal Pradesh which had claimed 25 lives.
On June 8 this year, 23 students from the VNR Engineering College in Hyderabad and a tour guide were washed away at Thalaut in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi district, when water was released into the river without warning from a nearby hydropower project.
The students were visiting Himachal Pradesh on a summer excursion; they were washed away into the turbulent river by a wall of water while they were busy clicking photographs near the Larji Hydropower project.
Police in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi has charged the officials and the faculty members under Sections 304 A and 336 under the Indian Penal Code.
The charge-sheet was produced before the chief judicial magistrate's court in Mandi and summons has been issued to all the nine accused.
Investigation had indicated serious lapses on the part of the dam authorities -- no warning had allegedly been issued before releasing the water -- and by the college faculty members, who had allowed students to venture inside the river.
The Himachal Pradesh High Court had taken serious note of the tragedy and directed the Mandi police to book both the dam authorities and college faculty members.
A massive search operation had been launched in the Beas River to fish out the bodies of the deceased; the painful exercise had taken over a fortnight.