Five Youths Drown In Godavari At Veleru In Eluru District
The district administration deployed expert swimmers to retrieve bodies from the river: Police
Vijayawada: Five youths drowned in River Godavari on Friday. The bodies of three were fished out and a search was on for the remaining two at Veleru village of Kukkunuru mandal in Eluru district.
According to Polavaram police, a group of students from SRM University in Amaravati pursuing engineering courses and others went to their friend’s house at Badrachalam on the eve of Ugadi festival on Thursday and they went to a film at night.
On Friday about 11.30am, seven youths arrived at Veleru village and entered the river. As they were not familiar with the depth of the river and not knowing how to swim, five drowned while the remaining two managed to save themselves.
Local villagers alerted the police who, in turn, rushed to the spot and enlisated the service of fishermen for the search and rescue. Later, the police took the help of SDRF and NDRF personnel to continue the search for the remaining two bodies even as there was rainfall and darkness at night.
The deceased were Chegontla Srikara Gupta (Badrachalam), Daggupati Navdeep (Vuyyuru) and Pondicherry Abhiram (Badrachalam). The missing youths were Pasam Satish Kumar (Madanapalle) and Gone Tejagna (Vuyyuru).
Two youths -- Chunduri Deepak (Kalidindi) and Geddam Harsha Vardhan (Vizianagaram) -- emerged safe.
Police booked a case at Kukkunuru police station.
