Bengaluru swimming mishap: Rescuers find one more student’s body

A day after a student of the Morarji Desai Residential School drowned near the Devanayakanahalli Lake check dam, the body of another student from the school has been recovered in the area.

Fire and Emergency Services personnel and local swimmers recovered the body of 14-year-old Santosh, a resident of a village near Devanahalli, on Thursday morning.

Villagers said nearly 15 students from the school visited the check dam on Wednesday along with two teachers and a watchman. The students jumped into the water in front of them.

Noticing the boys drowning, villagers rescued six of them but did not notice Santosh.

Fifteen-year-old Junaid Pasha, a resident of Subash Nagar near Vidyanagar, drowned on Wednesday. The school management claimed that they were not aware that Santosh was part of the group. While one more boy remains critical, four are out of danger, police said.

Santosh’s relatives said the school staff contacted them to check if he had returned home on Wednesday evening. When they said he did not, they informed them of the students’ visit to the check dam.

Santosh’s family searched for him in the area till Wednesday night, but could not find him.

“We went near the check dam again and found his slippers. Later, his body was found in the water,” Veena, a relative, said.

Channarayapatna police said Santosh and Junaid were Class 8 students. “We have arrested four people, including headmaster Shivamurthy, teachers Rashmi and Veena, and watchman Prasanna Kumar, under IPC Section 304 A (negligence causing death),” a police officer said.

The bodies were handed over to the families after post-mortem.