According to authorities on Saturday, five engineering students from two Andhra Pradesh institutions perished in the Godavari River on Friday in the Eluru district, close to Bhadrachalam in Telangana.
According to authorities, the dead were identified as Pasam Satish Kumar (19) and Teja Gnana Sai (19), whose corpses were discovered on Saturday morning, and Podicheti Abhiram (19), Charugulla Srikar Gupta (21), and Daggupati Navadeep (19), whose bodies were collected on Friday night.
Seven second-year engineering students, five from SRM University in Amaravati and two from KL University in Vijayawada, traveled to Bhadrachalam on Thursday, according to Polavaram DSP M Venkateswara Rao. On the festival of Ugadi, they prayed at Sri Seetha Ramachandra Swamy Devasthanam while lodging at a temple guest home.
The party visited the Kollugudem sand ramp in Veleru village early on Friday. They hiked about three kilometers to a deeper section of the river after finding little water there. Six kids went into the water after snapping pictures, according to the DSP.
They approached a deeper section of the river as they continued to walk hand in hand. According to the DSP, “one pupil slid first, and the others were pushed in while attempting to rescue him.”
According to the officer, one student—identified as Harshvardhan—managed to swim to safety while the other five vanished. Chunduri Deepak, a student on the bank, reportedly sounded an alert, but no assistance arrived right after.
Fire services and SDRF personnel joined the rescue attempts after locals who were fishing nearby, according to the DSP.
N Chandrababu Naidu, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, expressed sorrow over the occurrence and said that the government will provide the relatives of the victims with every assistance available.
In the meanwhile, police have filed a complaint under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) under Section 194 (unnatural death). “The remains were given to the family after being transported to Bhadrachalam Government Hospital for post-mortem examination,” according to the police.
