5 teenagers out for picnic drown in Badlapur

MUMBAI: In two separate incidents, five youngsters drowned in Badlapur on Friday. Four youngsters from Ghatkopar died in Kondeshwar lake and one from Sion Koliwada died in the Barrage dam. The fire brigade is searching for the teen from Sion Koliwada. All of them came for a picnic with their friends.

In the first incident, five friends from Ghatkopar visited the Kondeshwar waterfall of Badlapur, as they had just finished their exams.

According to Ganesh Gholap, who owns a stall near the site, said, “These youngsters were here around 1:30. I could not see what exactly happened but around 5 pm one of the boys from their group came running towards us for help.”

He added that they called the villagers and around 5:45pm, they retrieved all four of them but they all were declared dead.

“They drowned trying to save each other,” added Gholap.

The deceased were identified as Swayam Manjrejkar, 18, Akash Zinga, 19, Suraj Salave 19, and Linus Ucchpawar, 19. One of their friend who saved his life and came out of the water to ask for help is Pratik Hate, 19.

An officer from Badlapur rural police station said, “These four entered into the water for swimming, and one of them could not get the idea of the depth and started drowning. Immediately after, another got into deep water and couldn’t save themselves.”

Their parents were called to identify them, said the officer, adding, “we have registered an accidental death report in the matter.”

In another incident, four friends from Sion Koliwada reached Badlapur in the morning around 11:30 am and were having fun in the Badlapur river, Barrage dam area. No one noticed but later realized that one of their friend Arvind Armugham Devendra, 17, is missing while he was too swimming in the water.’