Patna, April 14: In yet another drowning incident on Ganga ghats, a 20-year-old aspiring engineer lost his life while taking a dip in the river on the occasion of Satuwaani festival today.

This is the fourth incident of drowning in the Ganga in the past 17 days. No diver was present at Gandhi ghat when the accident occurred today.

The divers appointed by the administration reached the ghat almost an hour after the youth drowned in the river.

They fished out the body and sent it to Patna Medical College Hospital.

The deceased, identified as Navneet Kumar, had recently appeared for the IIT-JEE entrance examination and used to stay at a private lodge near the Mahendru post office under the Pirbohore police station.

Today being a festival day, most ghats in the state capital witnessed a massive rush of devotees wanting to take a dip in the Ganga.

“The youth hails from the Madhepura district and one of his sisters is a teacher with the Army School in Danapur. He was preparing for competitive examinations,” an officer at Pirbohor police station told The Telegraph.

The police had a talk with some friends of Navneet at the lodge after the incident. According to the boarders, the youth had studied till late last night.

“In the morning, Navneet got up early and borrowed some cash from his friends to buy a soap. While returning from the shop, he met three other boarders who were planning to go to the Gandhi Ghat to take a dip in the Ganga. Navneet insisted on going with them and the four of them reached the ghat around 12.15pm. The other three boys have been identified as Nishant, Vivek and Saurabh,” the police officer said.

While bathing at the ghat, which had a considerable crowd, Navneet went a little deep into the water and started to drown.

“Perhaps his leg got stuck in an under water hole and he could not come to the surface. His friends tried hard to save him but their efforts went in vain. People looked around to locate a diver but none could be found. The incident took place around 12.30pm. The police were informed and they arrived after 10 minutes,” a friend of Navneet said.

The Telegraph spoke to Rajendra Sahni, the diver who had fished out Navneet’s body.

“I had been asked to be present at Gai Ghat since devotees were coming there for the holy dip. I was informed about the drowning incident around 1.30pm and reached the spot within five minutes. I managed to fish out the body very fast. I have got no information about the other divers,” he said.

The absence of divers at the ghat raises question about the district administration’s seriousness about frequent reports of drowning in the Ganga.

The district administration had stated earlier this month that it had 33 people from fishermen community who worked as divers for it.

In a talk with The Telegraph earlier, additional district magistrate, disaster management, Anirudh Kumar had admitted that there was no provision of patrolling at Ganga ghats.

The normal response time of divers in the city areas rested at one hour which clearly meant that there was practically no chance of divers saving a victim unless the latter drowned in front of them.