In a tragic incident, three students of Maharaja’s College in city and one from T. Narasipura, who had been to Srirangapatna for a picnic along with three others, met their watery grave in river Cauvery near Nimishamba Temple here last evening.

The deceased have been identified as M.N. Madan (21), son of Nagaraju and Sujatha, residents of Mandya Koppal in Srirangapatna taluk; S. Prasanna (20), son of Somanna Nayaka and Manjula, residents of Dharmapura village in Hunsur taluk; D.M. Sundresh (20), son of Manjunath, a resident of Dasarahalli, Danakal Hobli, Moodigere taluk in Chikamagalur district, all students of Maharaja’s College who were pursuing their final B.Com course and Harish Kumar (20), son of Prakash and a resident of Tallur village, Arasikere taluk in Hassan district, who was pursuing his final year B.Com course at T. Narasipura Government First Grade College. Harish was staying with his uncle Gangadharappa, an employee of Canara Bank and residing in T. Narasipura.

Other three students, who swam to safety are D.G. Praveen, son of Gangadharappa, a resident of T. Narasipura; N. Puneet, son of Nagaraju, a resident of Lokanayakanagar near KRS main road in Metagalli and N. Rangaswamy, son of Nanjaiah, resident of Hittuvalli, Rangasamudra post, T.Narasipura, who were pursuing their final year B.Com at Maharaja’s College in city.

It is reported that all seven students visited Chamundi Hill yesterday morning in a bus and offered prayers to goddess Chamundeshwari and proceeded to Nimishamba Temple in Srirangapatna and reached the temple at 1.30 pm where they had lunch on a rock in the middle of the river.

After having their lunch, the seven decided to go for a swim and ventured into the river during which Madan, Prasanna, Sundaresh, and Harish swam fast and were caught in a whirlpool and were drowned. All efforts by their friends to rescue their drowning friends proved futile.

Police, who reached the spot on receiving information, managed to fish out the bodies of Madan and Prasanna with the help of locals yesterday evening and shifted the bodies to Srirangapatna General Hospital Mortuary where post-mortem was conducted and the bodies were handed over to the relatives of the deceased.

The Police and the locals who were involved in searching the bodies of the other two students had to stop their search as it was getting dark. The Police who began their search this morning fished out the bodies of Sundresh and Harish Kumar which was found at a distance and shifted the bodies to the Srirangapatna General Hospital, where post mortem was conducted and the bodies were handed over to their relatives.

Sources said that the last rites of all four deceased will be held at their native place today afternoon.

All were good students who scored high marks

Thimmarayappa, HOD of Commerce, Maharaja’s College speaking to SOM said that all the three students of the college who were drowned yesterday were meritorious students, who used to score high marks in the exams and added that Madan was a topper among them.

He also said that these students had never bunked classes and had above 90% attendance.

Thimmarayappa said that yesterday was the last day of the college as midterm holidays began today. The Principal of the college also gave the same opinion.

‘Youth ignore the warnings of Police’: DySP

Meanwhile, Mandya DySP Geetha speaking to SOM this morning said that though we install warning sign boards they do not remain even for a day as tourists and others destroy the boards.

She further said that some youths do not care or pay heed to the warnings of Police personnel who are deployed round the clock there.

Geetha said that the district administration has ordered the deployment of five Home Guard personnel to man the area and the same would be done in a day or two.

She also said that there is a Srirangapatna Police Outpost near Ganjam and the staff goes on regular beats in the area and added that fencing would be erected around the bathing ghat area after consultation with the concerned authorities. This is the first death report at the place this year, she added.

Courtesy: Star Of Mysore