Amit Kumar Dubey’s mother grieves at South Port police station. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Amit Kumar Dubey, a 16-year-old student, lost his footing and drowned in the Hooghly while immersing a Saraswati idol on Tuesday afternoon. Two of his classmates also fell into the water and had a narrow escape.

The three — Amit, Vicky Shaw and Pradip Kumar Shaw — were among the 13 students of Andhra Association School, accompanied by a lone teacher and a durwan, who arrived at Gwalior ghat around 1.30pm in a truck.

“Before all of us had even got off the truck, Amit, Vicky and Pradip ran towards the water with the idol. Because of the low tide, the water had receded. Our teacher asked them not to advance but they did not listen. When Amit slipped and went under water, Pradip and Vicky tried to steady him and lost their own footing,” recounted Bikash Chaudhury, a student who was part of the group.

While Amit was immediately sucked under water, Vicky and Pradip were swept in different directions by the current. The other students and teacher Tanmay Ghosh could only scream for help.

Sushil Nashkar, 45, jumped in and rescued Vicky. Pradip swam ashore on his own.

Calcutta police’s Disaster Management Group, which is supposed to man the ghats during immersion, was not present in the vicinity at the time.

“With such strong currents, we will have to wait for the body to surface on Wednesday. The river traffic police has been put on alert,” said an officer of South Port police station.

“Why didn’t the school authorities inform us that the students would be taken for immersion? Why weren’t experienced people asked to immerse the idol? This is an unpardonable act of negligence by the school,” said Amit’s father Bachcha Dubey.