Kharagpur, April 30: An IIT Kharagpur student who had gone for an overnight picnic with his friends drowned early today while bathing in the Subarnarekha that had swollen after a spell of rain over the past few days.

The body of Chandan Sumanth, a third-year mechanical engineering student from Hyderabad, was fished out by villagers a few kilometres from the spot where he had drowned.

None of the IIT officials and students, most of whom were yet to recover from the shock, was willing to speak about the incident. Police said Sumanth was part of a group of 12 students that had hired two Maruti vans to go to the banks of the Subarnarekha in Narayangarh, a picnic spot popular among IIT students for its sandy tracts and forests.

"They went to Bhasraghat on the banks of the Subarnarekha around 30km from the IIT. Villagers told us they had seen the students dancing to loud music around 1am. In the early hours today, the students crossed a bridge to the other side, which is relatively empty," a police officer said.

Tarun Kanti Ghosh, a 50-year-old farmer who was on his way to the field along with a neighbour around 4.30am, said he had seen the group racing with each other.

"Some of them were even going to the middle of the river, where the current is the strongest. We weren't surprised. We have seen students doing this before," Ghosh said.

Fisherman Chandan Senapati said he had seen some of the students swimming. "I yelled and warning them about the strong current. But they were in no mood to listen. I had just looked the other way when I heard shouts of 'Chandan, Chandan'. They said they couldn't find one of their friends and feared he had drowned. I raised the alarm and villagers rushed in."

Sumanth's body was recovered by the villagers three hours later around 8am.

The additional superintendent of police in Jhargram, Ajit Singh Yadav, said the youth's friends were being questioned.

P.K. Das, the head of the mechanical engineering department where Sumanth studied, said his parents had been informed. None from his family had arrived till late this evening.