Two friends, who wanted to become army jawans, drowned in a pond, one of them trying to save the other, while bathing here at Mandaikhurd on Sunday afternoon.

Divers pressed into service recovered the bodies, which after post-mortem, were handed over to relatives. Both aged 18, Chandan Kumar and Sonu Kumar, had passed their matriculation exam last year and had been studying together to become army jawans.

Chandan and Sonu had gone to bathe in a pond on Sunday around noon. Chandan went to the middle of the pond and started drowning. As he shouted for help, Sonu went to save him, but drowned himself. Bystanders tried to rescue them but in vain. Finally, Lohsighna outpost police were informed, who pressed divers. It took two hours for them to recover the bodies from the pond.

Getting to know this, sadar MLA of the BJP Manish Jaiswal sent two representatives Vijay Kumar and Ranjan Chaudhary to Mandaikhurd who stayed there till the bodies were recovered. MLA Jaiswal also gave Rs 5,000 to each of the two families for last rites of the boys. “It’s a very unfortunate incident,” the MLA said.

“Our hearts go out to the families.”

The entire locality was grief-stricken. “Both Chandan and Sonu were very well-behaved boys who were preparing hard to become army men. Feeling shocked that this happened,” said a neighbour.