BAREILLY: Five MBBS students of Budaun’s government medical college drowned in river Ganga while taking holy dip on the occasion of Maha Shivratri on Saturday.
Two of them were rescued by the locals while three are still missing. DM Budaun Manoj Kumar and SSP O P Singh rushed to the spot and led the rescue operation that was carried out by SDRF (State Disaster response Force) and local police with the support of local divers. No bodies were recovered till the time of filing this report. The condition of one of the survivors is stable at the hospital. All the students are from the 2019 batch and were close friends. They had reached the spot on three bikes and took a boat to reach the other side of the river.
Officials said that the incident took place at around 1pm when five students of Government Medical College—Ankush Kumar, 23, resident of Bharatpur (Rajasthan), Pramod Yadav, 22, resident of Gorakhpur (UP), Naveen Sengar, 22, resident of Hathras (UP), Pawan Yadav, 24, resident of Ballia (UP) and Jai Maurya, 26, resident of Jaunpur (UP) had gone to take a dip in Ganga river.
Ankush was the first one to be rescued and he survived unscathed while Pramod Yadav is admitted at the medical college in Budaun.
Ankush said, "We had taken a boat to reach the other shore of the river and few of us were taking bath in the river when one of us started drowning and while attempting to save each other, we all reached deep into water. When I shouted for help, a man suddenly appeared and took me out with the support of a stick and later we both rescued Pramod but in the meantime Jai, Naveen and Pawan disappeared into deep water.”
DM Manoj Kumar said, "Five students of MBBS third year were taking bath in the river when they accidentally drowned. Two of them were saved with the support of locals and continuous efforts are being made to find the other three students. We have also taken the support of SDRF and expect to find them soon. Their families have been informed of the incident.”
