JU Engineering student drowns in Ramgarh lake

Kolkata: A second year engineering student of Jadavpur University died after drowning in Ramgarh lake.

The incident took place on Wednesday morning when the victim went to the lake to take a bath there. Police have started a case of unnatural death. They are investigating if there was any foul play behind the death of the victim.

Police said that the deceased Souvik Chandra (20), a second year student of production engineering at Jadavpur University had been living as a paying guest along with three others at Vikramgarh area. They used to go to play football on Pragati Sangha ground every day.

Like the other days, he went to play football on Wednesday morning. After the game got over, the youth along with some of his friends went to Ramgarh lake to take a bath. Souvik was trying to cross the pond along with his friends when the incident took place. The other friends managed to cross the pond but Souvik was trapped in the middle of the pond as he had some respiratory distress.

His friends swam to the centre of the pond after seeing the youth drown. They, however, failed to rescue the victim.

Police and local people later recovered the body of the victim and sent it for post-mortem. The local people told the police that the victim was not an efficient swimmer and had been undergoing some training. They raised questions as to why the victim tried to cross the pond despite knowing fully well that he was not adept in swimming.

In the course of the investigation, police came to know that Souvik was undergoing a training course on swimming and he used to swim in the Ramgarh lake along with some of his friends after playing football in the morning.

Eyewitnesses told the police that Souvik suddenly drowned in the pond while swimming. It appeared as though he was gasping for breath when they saw him from a distance.

According to the preliminary investigation, police suspect that the youth drowned after he suffered breathing problems. They were also investigating if there was any foul play into the incident.