HYDERABAD: A 19-year-old student who went missing from his house at Dabeerpura after offering afternoon prayers on Monday reportedly drowned in the Umdasagar lake at Jalpally later in the evening. Though the State Disaster Response Force (DRF) personnel tried for over 10 hours, they could not retrieve the body.
The victim, Mohammed bin Awad was supposed to come home for lunch by 2.30 pm. When he did not return on Monday, his father Mohammed bin Omar with family members started searching for him and learnt that Awad, along with two friends, Mohammed Abdullah and Syed Amir, were seen going on a bike towards Charminar around 1.40 pm.
"I started calling my son's mobile. It kept ringing but he did not answer nor did he call back. At around 3 pm, I got a call from my son's phone. His friends Abdullah and Amir asked me to immediately go to the lake and switched off the phone," Omar said. He said that his son had not mentioned their names before.
The lake is 30 foot deep and the water is muddy with sharp stones and water plants and very dangerous for swimming.
On reaching the lake, Omar heard that his son had drowned. "When we visited the spot, it was dark. Around 7 am on Tuesday a team of 20 SRDF and safety personnel reached the spot to retrieve the body," Omar said.
He said a local, Mahesh, had informed him that three youths on a bike had come for swimming in the Umdasagar and were warned by locals to stay away as it was dangerous. The trio took an alternative route to the lake. The locals followed them and reached the spot where Abdullah and Amir were. They tried to flee on the bike but were caught and handed over to the police around 3.40 pm, Omar said.
"We questioned Amir and Abdullah. They said that they had warned Awad against going into the lake but he did not listen. They confessed that they panicked and tried to flee after Awad dove into the water and did not come out," Chandrayangutta inspector Prasad Varma said.
"We did our best to recover the body but it was not found," Mohammed Ethasham, a DRF guard said.
"I spoke to Chandrayangutta inspector last night to see that the body was recovered. In the early hours, DRF was pressed into action from our side. We will do our best so that the victim's body is recovered. If the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) comes, the issue will be resolved easily," local MLA Ahmed Balala said.
