Five drown in Dindi lake

Hyderabad: Five youths, including two girls, drowned in the Dindi reservoir in Nalgonda district on Monday. The victims, all relatives, had gone for a sightseeing trip at the reservoir after visiting Dindi village to attend the funeral rites of their grandfather.

Police said none of them knew swimming, but entered the reservoir at a spot where the water was too deep. All the bodies were fished out by local swimmers and police. D. Jyotsna 20, a BTech student from Avanti College in Hayatnagar, and her sister D. Devamani, 17, an Intermediate student in a private school at Nalgonda, were the two girls, who drowned.

The other three are their cousins D. Harshava-rdhan Reddy, 25, and an IT professional in Hi Tech city, and his brother Praneeth Reddy, 20, a degree student in Avanti College at Barkatpura, and their relative Avinash Reddy, 25,  hailing from Vanap-arthy in Warangal.

Police said that though the water looked shallow, it was very deep in the area where they went to swim. There were no locals to warn the victims. Another cousin of the victims, Aravind Reddy, who had not entered the water, witnessed the incident in horror. “They cried for help but nobody was around. Aravind Reddy alerted us, and we rushed to the spot. However, by then, all of them had drowned,” said Dindi SI M. Narasimhulu.

The cousins had gone to their native place for the funeral rituals of their grandfather, Malla Reddy, who expired on June 17. "They left the house in the morning saying they would come back soon. Later we got information that they had drowned," said a relative, who is now in Devarkonda. All the bodies were moved to Devarkonda mortuary for postmortem.

Jyotsna was staying at a hostel at Hayathnagar.   Harshavardhan and Praneeth were living with their parents at Vanasthalipuram. Avinash Reddy lived in Boduppal, and was searching for a job. Dindi police have booked a case. A large police force under senior police officials reached the spot for rescue operations.