Four drown at Dassam

Divers conduct a search on Saturday. (Prashant Mitra)

Ranchi, March 20: Four youths — two from Bokaro, one from Delhi and one from Hyderabad — drowned at Dassam Falls today.

The victims were identified as Symbiosis student Binni Kumar (25) from Bokaro, Nitesh Kumar (25) from Bokaro, Vikash Kumar (25) from Delhi and Sunny Kumar (25) from Hyderabad.

Till 6.30pm the Bundu police had managed to retrieve the bodies of Binni Kumar, Nitesh and Sunny. Vikash was still missing.

Three other youths who were part of the same group— Manish, Umesh and Bunty — were safe as they were cooking while the others went into the water.

The seven boys met in Calcutta on March 16 to watch the IPL cricket match there together. Yesterday, they spent the entire day at the home of a relative of Binni’s in Jamshedpur. Early this morning, they hired a taxi from Jamshedpur and headed for Dassam Falls for a picnic.

“The incident took place at 1.30pm. The four boys got into the water to bathe. They were holding hands when one slipped into the deep end. The other three lost their balance and got sucked into the deep end too and all four drowned,” said Venkatesh Prasad, officer in-charge of Bundu police station.

The bodies were sent to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) for post-mortem, after which they would be kept at the Abdul Razak Weavers Memorial Hospital at Irba for the families to claim them.

Prasad added it was Bokaro boy Binni who had organised the trip for his friends.