Three students meet watery grave at Uppinangady

Mangaluru: Three college students who went to the backwaters to celebrate their birthdays on New Year’s Eve, met a watery grave in the Nethravati river at Uppinangadi. Their bodies were retrieved from the river in the early morning on Tuesday.
According to police, the victims are Mohammed Suhaid of Perne and Firzan and Sahir from Uppinangady. The trio were undergraduate science students at a government first grade college in Uppinangady.

Police said a group of 20-25 student had gone to the backwaters around 7pm on Monday to celebrate the birthday of one of their classmates. During the celebrations, some students had smeared cake on the trio and to clean it, they stepped into the river in the dark. However, other members of the group were not aware of this, and had left the place, thinking the trio may have gone home since it was late.

When their families did not see them coming home even after 10pm, they called their friends and others to know about their whereabouts, during which it was suspected that they may have drowned. Police said they couldn’t conduct a search as it was dark, and the bodies were recovered early in the morning.

Asked if there was any foul play involved, the police said that an investigation is under way. A case has been registered at the Uppinangady police station in this regard.