Oct. 18: Two engineering students of IIT Kharagpur drowned in the sea in Digha while bathing today.

The bodies of fourth-year civil engineering student Rohit Tripathi, 21, and fourth-year aerospace engineering student Aniruddh Kumar Raju, 21, have been found.

Police said Rohit hailed from Bhopal and Aniruddh was from Chandigarh. The duo used to live in the Meghnad Saha Hall and Residence of IIT Kharagpur.

Rohit and Aniruddh were part of a group of five students who had gone to Digha early this morning in a hired Omni. They planned to return to their hostel in the evening.

The officer in charge of Digha police station, Sudip Bandopadhyay, said the group had started for Digha late last night. The OC said the students did not know swimming.

"Around 8am, four of them went to bathe in the sea. Questioning some local people, we came to know that the four had been pushed deep into the sea by the waves. Two of them managed to scramble back to the shore. They informed the police assistance booth and two rescue guards were immediately sent with rubber tubes. But the two students could not be found. Around noon, the body of Rohit Tripathi was washed ashore," Bandopadhyay said. Late this evening, the body of Aniruddh was found.

The OC said that as the flow of tourists rose during the Pujas, they are warned over the public address system not to venture beyond waist-deep water.

"The warning was being sounded over the public address system on the beach where the students were bathing. But apparently they did not pay heed and went deep into the sea," he added.

Asked why the rescue guards were not on the beach, the OC said: "Thousands of tourists go to bathe in the sea along a nearly 1km stretch. We don't have that kind of manpower at the moment to tackle the situation."

A dozen tourists have drowned in the sea at Digha so far this year.

The driver of the Omni, Akhtar Ali, said: "We started from IIT Kharagpur late last night and had dinner at a roadside dhaba. We reached Digha early this morning. The students had planned to visit Tajpur and Mandarmani and return to Kharagpur this evening. They were in a jovial mood and were cracking jokes in the car."

The registrar of IIT Kharagpur, Pradip Kumar Pyne, said he knew about the mishap. "We have sent a team from the IIT to Digha. The institute will close for the Pujas on Monday and reopen a week later."

An IIT official said Aniruddh's father Rajendra Kumar Raju, a bank employee, had reached Delhi from Chandigarh and would take a flight to Calcutta.

"He will got to Digha from Calcutta. Rohit's father A.K. Tripathi owns a petrol pump in Bhopal and is now in Punjab with his family. He has been informed," the official said.