Navi Mumbai: In a tragic turn of events, four among the 37 graduation students from Mumbai, drown in a reservoir situated near Sondai fort. The group of students belonging to different colleges from Mumbai, know each other through National Cadet Corps (NCC).
“All the students were from different colleges,” senior police inspector Milind Khopde from Khalapur police station said. The students comprising 22 boys and 15 girls had planned to go for trekking of Sondai fort, situated at Sondaiwadi.
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The group climbed their way to the fort at 10 am and descended from the spot by 1.30 pm. Following the descend the group decided to take a dive at the Dhavari river reservoir constructed by Sai Sansthan at around 2.30 pm.
The students who drowned have been identified as Rizvi college students; Ishant Dinesh Yadav (19) a resident of Dandpada in Khar West, Eklavya Umesh Singh (18) from Nalasopara and Ranath Madhu Banda (18) from Virar and , Akash Dharmadas Mane (26) from Colaba and a student of Sidharth College of law.
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“The students had themselves arranged the trip after making a whatsapp group. The friends have said that the group was used to going on adventurous trips,” Deputy Superintendent of Police Vikram Kadam, Khalapur division.
Meanwhile father of Singh said, “As per my knowledge, it was a compulsory trip by NCC. That is what I was told. He was to turn 18 on July 1.” Father of Banda said, “He had told me about the trip last month but I had told not to go. He said that it was by from NCC and it was compulsory. I had not given him any money as well. I don’t know who all took them. The NCC sirs are not taking my calls.” The students had come for the trip in a luxury bus.
“While the students had taken a break near the waterbody, Singh jumped into the water without an understanding of the depth. When he started drowning, the other students raised an alarm after which the other three jumped to save him but could not swim through the depth. The water flow was not strong but the depth was more. It is difficult to swim through if the person knows only basic swimming,” Kadam said.
According to police, the Sondai Fort is a tourist place but the reservoir is not. “There are no instructions about the entry to the reservoir being banned. I would like to appeal to the public that during monsoon, one should not enter the water bodies without understanding the current of the water and the depth of the place,” he added.
All the bodies were taken out by a team of disaster management team, police and local villagers.
