Mounesh Vishwakarma

Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (SP)

Bantwal, Nov 30: Out of two students who had ventured into River Netravati under the new bridge built across the rive between B C Road and Panemangalore here, one lost his life after being dragged away by strong currents. The students had approached the river on Saturday November 29 afternoon to take bath.

The deased has been identified as Sharat Kumar (15), son of Shekhar Acharya, residing in a rented house in Ganadpadpu in B C Road.

It is learnt that Sharat had left home at around 3.30 pm on Saturday in the company of his friend,m Prajwal. He was a tenth standard student of Sri Rama High School in Kalladka. Sharat, who did not know how to swim, slipped into deeper areas of the river after his legs got stuck in slippery mud and was dragged deeper by strong current. Prajwal, realizing the seriousness of the situation, shouted for help.

Hearing the alarm,Vinod Raj and some others, who were passing by the bridge, rushed to the help of the students in distress. They succeeded in bringing Sharat out, but by then he had breathed his last, policemen of town station here said.

Inspector,K U Belliappa, and other policemen rushed to the spot, registered a case, and took steps for conducting postmortem and other legal procedures. A large number of people had gathered at the spot immediately after the news of the tragedy spread.