Pune: Two students, who were pursuing their second-year BSc studies from a city college, drowned in a pond in the backwaters of Khamboli dam in Mulshi taluka, around 35km from the city. The incident occurred on Sunday morning. Three more youngsters, who fell into the waters along with the duo, were rescued by other students in the same group.
PMRDA fire brigade 's station duty officer Vijay Mahajan told TOI, "The deceased students were identified as Raj Patil (22) of Akurdi, a native of Dhule, and Ojas Kathapurkar (22) from Nigdi Pradhikaran." According to the PMRDA fire brigade, a group of nine students, comprising five boys and four girls, went on a picnic to the dam site. They started their trip on motorcycles from FC Road on Sunday morning and reached the dam around 9.
30am. Mahajan said, "They crossed some agricultural fields to reach the spot and waded into the waters to access the other side. Patil and Kathapurkar drowned immediately.
They got stuck in the mud, and the other students didn't realise it," Mahajan said. "While Patil remained missing, Kathapurkar was taken out motionless from the waters by the other students. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead.
Around 2pm, we received a call from Paud police, informing us about the incident. We reached the dam site with boats and other rescue equipment. After two hours of searching, we found Patil's body," he said.
According to the police, five students in total fell into the waters, but three we.