Post by L Roebuck on Jul 29, 2006 18:47:39 GMT -5
Two JU students dead, 1 missing; cops say ‘accident’
Suchetana Haldar
Kolkata, July 29: EVEN as mystery shrouds the death of two students from Jadavpur University (JU) who were out on an adventure trip to Purulia, the police prima facie maintained that it was a case of ‘‘accident’’.
The bodies of two students — one male and a female — were fished out of a river near Bagmundi Hills in Purulia district early on Saturday. One girl in the five-member team is still missing. Two others were traced and are in police custody now. Search operations for the missing student went on till late on Saturday night.
The five-member team — Subhankar Saha, Swati Das, Bappaditya Chatterjee, Arundhati Ghosh and Kaushik Sarkhel — had left for an adventure trip to Mathaburu village, near Bagmundi in Purulia, on Thursday. Except for Kaushik, the rest are all students of JU. Their family members were not aware of the trip.
Bappaditya and Kaushik, who were rescued last night, are now in police custody.
The local MLA, Prabhat Mahato, told Newsline that the group arrived at Kudma village late on Friday afternoon. After spending some time in the village, the five headed for a mountain cave, about six kilometres from the village.
‘‘They had to cross the Shobha river on their way to the cave. The river was in spate following a heavy downpour for about two hours yesterday afternoon. The villagers, aware of the swift currents in the river, had warned them against trying to cross it. But they paid no heed,’’ said Mahato.
Villagers said that the students planned to stay the night near the mountain cave where they were heading. Dusk was approaching by then. According to reports, two were sucked into the swift currents as they tried to cross over. The duo who were rescued managed to hang on to some boulders and shrubs.
On Saturday morning, the body of Subhankar was traced first, about three kilometres from where he had drowned. Swati’s body was fished out from a spot nearby. While she was reported to have been wearing a T-shirt and track-suit when she left the village, the body was found to be naked.
Police said the swift currents may have torn off the clothes. ‘‘Right now we are not looking at any other angle,’’ said R Yadav, the additional superintendent of police, Purulia. ‘‘The two bodies certainly had marks of injury, but it may have been caused by stones and boulders. The nature of the injuries will be known only after the post-mortems,’’ he added.
Bappaditya is a second year student of M Pharm, while Subhankar and Arundhati were first year students in the same department. Swati was a second year post graduate student of Physics. Kaushik is not a student of the university but the son of a non-teaching staff.
Meanwhile, the university authorities have already sent their representatives to help in rescue operations. ‘‘Swapan Kanti Pal, director of physical instruction and Indrajit Saha, a non-teaching staff who is familiar with the terrain, have already reached the spot,’’ said Rajat K Bandopadhyay, JU Registrar.
Bandopadhyay said Bappaditya had called up at around 7 pm yesterday. ‘‘He called up his friends, who informed me. A few minutes later, I got Bappaditya’s call. He told me that it was dark all around and he had no clue where the others were,’’ said Bandopadhyay.
Meanwhile, the shocked Ghosh family members are keeping their fingers crossed, praying for Arundhati’s safe return. ‘‘We had no idea what had happened until we saw the news telecast this morning. Arundhati had last called up on Thursday night,’’ said Sanjib Ghosh, Arundhati’s cousin.
Article: cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=194793
Suchetana Haldar
Kolkata, July 29: EVEN as mystery shrouds the death of two students from Jadavpur University (JU) who were out on an adventure trip to Purulia, the police prima facie maintained that it was a case of ‘‘accident’’.
The bodies of two students — one male and a female — were fished out of a river near Bagmundi Hills in Purulia district early on Saturday. One girl in the five-member team is still missing. Two others were traced and are in police custody now. Search operations for the missing student went on till late on Saturday night.
The five-member team — Subhankar Saha, Swati Das, Bappaditya Chatterjee, Arundhati Ghosh and Kaushik Sarkhel — had left for an adventure trip to Mathaburu village, near Bagmundi in Purulia, on Thursday. Except for Kaushik, the rest are all students of JU. Their family members were not aware of the trip.
Bappaditya and Kaushik, who were rescued last night, are now in police custody.
The local MLA, Prabhat Mahato, told Newsline that the group arrived at Kudma village late on Friday afternoon. After spending some time in the village, the five headed for a mountain cave, about six kilometres from the village.
‘‘They had to cross the Shobha river on their way to the cave. The river was in spate following a heavy downpour for about two hours yesterday afternoon. The villagers, aware of the swift currents in the river, had warned them against trying to cross it. But they paid no heed,’’ said Mahato.
Villagers said that the students planned to stay the night near the mountain cave where they were heading. Dusk was approaching by then. According to reports, two were sucked into the swift currents as they tried to cross over. The duo who were rescued managed to hang on to some boulders and shrubs.
On Saturday morning, the body of Subhankar was traced first, about three kilometres from where he had drowned. Swati’s body was fished out from a spot nearby. While she was reported to have been wearing a T-shirt and track-suit when she left the village, the body was found to be naked.
Police said the swift currents may have torn off the clothes. ‘‘Right now we are not looking at any other angle,’’ said R Yadav, the additional superintendent of police, Purulia. ‘‘The two bodies certainly had marks of injury, but it may have been caused by stones and boulders. The nature of the injuries will be known only after the post-mortems,’’ he added.
Bappaditya is a second year student of M Pharm, while Subhankar and Arundhati were first year students in the same department. Swati was a second year post graduate student of Physics. Kaushik is not a student of the university but the son of a non-teaching staff.
Meanwhile, the university authorities have already sent their representatives to help in rescue operations. ‘‘Swapan Kanti Pal, director of physical instruction and Indrajit Saha, a non-teaching staff who is familiar with the terrain, have already reached the spot,’’ said Rajat K Bandopadhyay, JU Registrar.
Bandopadhyay said Bappaditya had called up at around 7 pm yesterday. ‘‘He called up his friends, who informed me. A few minutes later, I got Bappaditya’s call. He told me that it was dark all around and he had no clue where the others were,’’ said Bandopadhyay.
Meanwhile, the shocked Ghosh family members are keeping their fingers crossed, praying for Arundhati’s safe return. ‘‘We had no idea what had happened until we saw the news telecast this morning. Arundhati had last called up on Thursday night,’’ said Sanjib Ghosh, Arundhati’s cousin.
Article: cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=194793