Pramesh S Jain & Yogesh K Porwar
F
ive college students including three girls drowned to death at the Sangama picnic spot in the outskirts of the Kanakapura on Monday.
The victims are part of the 12 students studying in different engineering colleges in the city had gone from Bengaluru on a sight-seeing trip on a hired public carrier .
The deceased have been identified as Varsha (20) of KLE College,Rajajinagar,Arpita NL 20,2nd year Engineering student of RR College,Neha 19,BSc student of KLE College,RR Nagar,Abhishek 20 of Bihar, Computer Science student of Malleshwaram Government College and Tejas,21,2nd year BCA student of Vijayanagar Government College,police said.
Senior officer told reporters,the victim along with seven others who are friends since their PU days,had planed for a picnic for many days and even had got permission from their family.
The group reached the Mayura guest house parking lot in the afternoon and ventured into the river side through a side route .
The group did not know swimming and holding hands to ventured into the water to play.While getting into the water few of them slipped and due to panic held the others tightly and dragged them along .
Seven others who are following them managed to escape and raised alarm for help.Since it was afternoon,there were few people were present in the area.By the time,the help came,it was too late, a senior officer, said .
The fire and emergency service personnel reached the spot and after three hours of search recovered the bodies .
The Kanakapura rural police and Satanuru station police visited the place and supervised the rescue operations.
The police said that there were security guards in the area and warning boards in place, despite this such incident occurred unfortunately.
The Police said the security arrangements will be reviewed to ensure such incident do not occur in future .
Senior officers supervising the rescue operation, said that the area was very tricky with rocks washed with sand making it slippery.
It is very difficult to walk on the rocks since the force of the water due to rocks was high and granite like rocks make it dangerous to walk.
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The police are questioning the students to record their statement to rule out any foul play as part of the probe . Superintendent of Police,Ramanagara,Karthik Reddy, present at the spot to supervise the investigation said .
