Hyderabad, November 15: Two youngsters from the state, both second year students of the Indian School of Mines (ISM), Dhanbad in Jharkhand, state, who went on a weekend picnic met with a watery grave in Bhatinda waterfalls there on Sunday.
A group of students of the institution went to Bhatinda waterfalls, some 20 km away from their college when one of them slipped and fell into the waters. Seeing his friend drowning, the other student went to his rescue but was also drowned.The two youngsters are N Goutam Babu of Kukatpally in Hyderabad and G Veera Ashok Kumar of Vijayawada. According to information available to the parents of the deceased, the duo along with nine others went to Bhatinda waterfalls on a picnic.
Around 4 p.m, Ashok Kumar and Goutam climbed down the steps of the waterfalls. “Ashok Kumar slipped into the waters and seeing his friend drowning, Goutam went to his rescue but was washed away in the swirling waters,” Goutam’s uncle K Srinivasa Rao told Express.Police rushed to the spot and tried to rescue the youngsters but in vain. They had to suspend the rescue operations after sunset. On Monday morning, the bodies of the duo were fished out of the waters.
Goutam’s father, Shankar Babu, who works as a manager in Godrej company, was informed about his son’s drowning on Sunday evening. Shankar, who was in Vijayawada at that time, immediately rushed to the city and flew to Kolkata on Monday morning. The bodies are expected to arrive her by Tuesday morning.According to Srinivasa Rao, Goutam was a brilliant student. He joined the ISM in Dhanbad last year.
Goutam’s mother was not informed about her son’s death as she is presently ailing. Ashok, son of a police constable G Nagendra, had joined ISM despite achieving a good rank of 991 in the IIT entrance examination. “He could have easily joined the IIT but he chose to pursue mining engineering,” Avinash, elder brother of Ashok said.After learning about the incident on Sunday evening, both the parents fell unconscious and were hospitalised. Ashok’s brother Avinash and cousin Sarath Kumar left for Dhanbad to bring the body home.
-PTI