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IIT- Kharagpur professor drowns in abandoned quarry while taking selfie with son
Local residents managed to save his four-year-old son, who also fell into the water-filled ditch
A professor of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur got drowned in a water-filled ditch in which he fell along with his four-year-old son while taking selfie on Sunday morning.
Police said locals managed to pull out alive minor boy Udan from the abandoned quarry at Gholgoria near the prestigious institute in West Bengal’s Kharagpur.
West Midnapore district police superintendent Bharati Ghosh said Joydeep Bhatatcharya (40), a professor of oceanography department of the IIT, fell into the ditch with his son in a moment of carelessness.
“The quarry was filled with water. Although the locals manager to rescue the four- year old son, the professor could not be saved,” Ghosh told HT.
Bhattacharya, a resident of the industrial township of Asansol in Burdwan district of the state, joined the coveted institute in 2013.
He had recently bought a home at Gholgoria, which is three kilometres away from the institute campus. On Sunday, he came to the house along with his son and a two-year-old daughter, Sirin.
Eyewitnesses said that some local women first heard the sound of the professor and his son felling into the quarry.
“We rushed hearing the sound and saw little Sirin crying and pointing towards the quarry. We could somehow managed to rescue the boy, but the professor could not be saved,” said Panmani Murmu, an eyewitness.
The professor was declared brought dead after he was taken to Kharagpur hospital.
