One more tourist dies, after fainting at Goa EDM

One more tourist died late on Sunday night at the recently concluded Sunburn Klassique electronic dance music (EDM) festival here, taking the death toll to three in four days.

The deceased Sandeep Kotta (24), a resident of Bengaluru, collapsed while enjoying the EDM music at the festival and later died in a local hospital, Superintendent of Police North Goa Utkrisht Prasoon said.

On Friday, two youngsters from Andhra Pradesh, Sai Prasad Malayala and Venkat Satyanarayana, died after fainting outside the venue of the music festival.

A post-mortem could not reveal the exact cause of the death, with the police claiming that viscera extracted from the two bodies had been sent for further forensic examination.

After the deaths, the opposition has alleged that drugs were being sold at music events in Goa.

Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar accused the state government for this.

"Today's unfortunate incident has vindicated the stand of the Congress that the narcotic drugs trade in Goa is flourishing with the blessing of the ministers, MLAs and office-bearers of the party with a difference," he said.

Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar said the government was pained on account of the deaths.

"We are pained at the deaths. We are aware that we have to care for the tourists who come to Goa. We do not yet have the report over why they have died, it is accidental. If it is indeed that they have died because of drugs then we have to be alert, the media and the government have to be vigilant," Ajgaonkar said.

( With inputs from IANS )