In two incidents, 3 teenagers drown at same spot in Tungareshwar falls

Three teenagers drowned at a stream near a waterfall in Mumbai. Two of the victims died on Thursday evening, while the third incident occurred the following day. The area had been closed off to the public after a similar incident in July.

MUMBAI: In two separate incidents happening a few hours apart, three teenagers drowned at the same spot in a stream, which leads to a waterfall at Chinchoti near Tungareshwar in Vasai East on Thursday.

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Two of the teenagers died on Thursday evening — around three hours after the police and the fire brigade personnel recovered the body of the first victim, an 18-year-old from Vile Parle, said police officials.

The first drowned victim has been identified as Sumit Yadav, 18, and the other two are Rohan Rathod, 19, and Ravi Jha, 18, both residents of Nalasopara.

Thursday’s incidents come close on the heels of the death of Rakesh Surela, 20, who had drowned at the same spot on July 5. Incidentally, after Surela’s death, the police had barred entry to the waterfalls and the stream.

According to Naigaon police, Yadav had gone to visit Tungareshwar temple along with three of his friends and cousin Pintu Yadav on Thursday. In the afternoon, while returning they decided to go to the waterfall for a swim.

The police said that Yadav who did not know how to swim, ventured into the stream and drowned.

“He did not gauge the current of the stream and the depth of the water and as he did not know how to swim, he drowned,” said Gajanan Zinkalwad, police inspector from Naigaon police station.

When Yadav’s friends found him missing, they called the police emergency number and alerted the fire brigade. “We carried out a search operation and recovered Yadav’s body,” said Zhinkalwad.

Pintu told the police that they did not realise that Yadav had ventured into the water. “Sumit did not know how to swim but still he went into the stream without informing any of us while we were at the waterfall,” said Pintu.

After Surela, a Vasai resident, had drowned at the same spot, the police had barred entry to the waterfall and the stream. However, Yadav did not know that the stream was off limits and went for a swim.

Surela had bunked his college lectures and gone to Tungareshwar with five of his friends when he drowned.

About three hours after recovery of Yadav’s body, Rathod and Jha drowned at the same spot. The bodies of the two were recovered around 8am on Friday.

Pawan Singh, BJP Yuva Morcha leader, said that when the search for Rathod and Jha was stopped at night, they went to the police station and urged them to resume the search.

Their bodies were found on Friday morning. “The ambulance could not reach the spot, so we had to carry the bodies on our shoulders and get them to the road — around seven kilometers from the spot —from where they were sent for post-mortem,” said Singh.