Four engineering students were found dead in Eluru on Sunday. The victims had drowned in the Bhogapuram tank, Pedavegi of West Godavari district. The villagers alerted the police after they noticed one of the bodies floating in the tank.
The victims were identified as Kota Sai, Gummi Vijayashankar, K Harikrishna and A Sai Kiran, all students from Ramachandra Engineering College in Vatluru near Eluru Town, reported The New Indian Express.
While Vijayashankar, Harishankar and Sai Kiran were in third year of Mechanical engineering, Kota Sai was pursuing ECE.
Kota Sai and Gummi Vijayashankar were natives of Chintalapudi village in West Godavari, Kalidindi Harikrishna Raju belonged to Kothur village in Kamavarapukota, West Godavari and A Sai Kiran hailed from Kalidindi mandal, Krishna district.
Their identities were established after police recovered their identity cards from their bags kept on the tank’s bund.
The deceased students bunked college and went to swim in the tank on Saturday. As the students didn’t return, their parents phoned the college and their friends. However, they failed in getting to know their whereabouts.
According to The Hans India, a gardener from the village, noticed the college bags and clothes near the bund. He later noticed a body floating the tank. After he alerted the police, their bodies were fished out. The bodies were later sent to Eluru government hospital for autopsy and handed over to their parents.
Police have booked a case and recovered their cellphones, lunch boxes, college bags including a liquor bottle from the spot.
Principal of the college, P Sanjay told media that the students abstained from class.
He told The Hans India, "After seeing the scroll on TV that Ramachandra College students drowned in the water tank, I immediately came here."
District Superintendent M Ravi Prakash told The Hindu, “The lunch boxes were full. The students might have skipped classes to have a party at the water body. The victims are native of Chintalapudi, Eluru, and Kamavarapukota in the district.”