Chandrapur: Two teenage cousin brothers from Nagpur drowned in Wardha river at Ballarpur on Wednesday morning. Police jawans and divers failed to recover the dead bodies of the youths during the day, despite hours of search operation.Shriniwas Kottawar, a resident of Gadge Nagar, and his younger brother, Mahesh Kottawar, a resident of Dhanwantari Nagar in Nagpur, were visiting Ballarpur to take part in the marriage ceremony of Dharmayya Bandiwar's daughter. The Kottawar brothers arrived in the wee hours at Badiwar's residence at Phulsingh Naik Nagar in Ballarpur. Shriniwas Kottawar's son Swapnil (17) and Mahesh Kottawar's son Rahul (19) went to visit the historic Ballarpur fort at around 7am.When the duo did not return home for several hours, and did not respond to many phone calls, the family members went to the fort at Ballarpur to search for them. When they failed to find them in the fort premises, the family searched for them along the banks of Wardha river, which skirts the fort. They found the clothes, sandals and mobile phones of the cousins kept at the visarjan ghat of the river. Concluding that the duo had drowned, the family immediately informed Ballarpur police.Local divers were initially deployed for search operations. Later, two motorboats were also summoned from Chandrapur to assist in the search. Local councillors Sachin Jadhav and Mahendra Dhoke were also present to supervise the search operation. Police jawans and divers had not fished out the bodies of the two youths by evening. Search operation were called off as night fell, and will resume on Thursday morning.

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