Sambalpur, March 22: Police today arrested Ramesh Agrawal, president of Sambalpur Lions Club, on charges of negligence in connection with the boat tragedy that took place in the Hirakud dam on February 9.

The incident had claimed 31 lives. The boat, which was carrying picnickers from the Lions Club, apart from other passengers, capsized in the Hirakud dam reservoir because of alleged overloading on the fateful day. The police had registered a case at Hirakud police station and the state government instituted a probe by the revenue divisional commissioner (north).

Ramesh was arrested from his house near VSS Marg in the Dhanupali police station limits of Sambalpur at 9am today. Inspector in charge of Hirakud police station Biswapati Panda said: “After investigation, we found that the Lions Club president, Ramesh Agrawal, had failed to control indiscipline on the boat. He was arrested after proper investigation. He has been booked under sections 280, 282, 304 (A) and 114 of the IPC. He will be produced in court today.”

Earlier, the police had arrested the boat owner, Satyananda Pandey, and two boatmen Akshaya Rana and Anjan Parua in this connection. Ramesh Agrawal is the fourth arrest in the incident.

However, Agrawal said all the 53 members of the Lions Club had finalised about the picnic spot on February 2. About the allegation of overloading in the boat, Ramesh said: “As many as 140 passengers had boarded the boat while going to the picnic spot. However, there were only 124 persons while coming back. The boatmen had not asked us to get down from the boat.”