Rescuers retrieve bodies of 2 students who drowned in Varasgaon dam near Lavasa

One of the students was from Shillong while the other was from Chennai.

The bodies of two students from a private college in Lavasa who drowned in the backwaters of Varasgaon dam on Sunday were found on Monday afternoon by rescue teams, police said.

A disaster management team retrieving the bodies of two students from the backwaters of Varasgaon dam (HT PHOTO)

The two students who drowned while on an outing with their friends were identified as Nihal Uttam Thapa (21) from Shillong, Meghalaya and Shirashit Chandramauli Soran (20), from Chennai police said. Both were second year students pursuing Bachelor in Science at Christ College in Lavasa.

“The disaster management team of Mulshi administration helped us in finding the bodies,” said police naik Ravindra Nagtilak of Paud police station.

He said the tragedy took place when one of the students began to drown after entering the water. Three others came to his rescue but one of them also drowned with the one they were trying to rescue.

“It was their day off yesterday (Sunday) so they came to the dam and one of them, who did not know how to swim well, entered the water and drowned as the water was deep. Three others who were near the water entered the water to save him but as they started drowning too, two of them managed to come out but one of them could not,” Nagtilak said.

The parents of Soran have reached Pune while Thapa’s parents are on their way from Shillong. The bodies have been taken to a local government hospital for post mortem.