29 January,2018 07:05 PM IST | Mumbai | A Correspondent
The spot from where the two students' bodies were recovered on Sunday
An adventure trip to Dhom dam in Satara cost two PhD students of Tata Institute their lives, after they drowned in the deep water on Saturday. On Sunday, Pune's Sahyadri Trekkers helped to recover their bodies from the dam after conducting an overnight search operation.
Swim gone wrong
According to the police, the deceased have been identified as Saumyajeet Hariprasad Saha, 25, and Avinash Shrivastava, 27, from West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, respectively. They had gone on the trip with two other students from the institute. Speaking to mid-day, Vinayak Bajirao Vetal, senior inspector of Wai police station, said, "On Saturday, the four friends reached Wai at 10 am. After going around the village, they reached Dhom dam around 3.30 pm and set up their tent. Thereafter, the friends decided to go for a swim in the water, and one of them jumped in. But soon, he started struggling to come out; one of his friends then jumped in to rescue him. However, both of them drowned. The other two boys immediately informed the villagers, who then sought help from the Sahyadri Trekkers."
Intensive search
Sources said the search started around 5 pm on Saturday and continued till Sunday morning. As the trekkers was not able to trace the bodies, district authorities called the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) around 11 pm. However, Vairavanathan, assistant commandant, NDRF, said that just 15 minutes before the team reached the spot, the trekkers managed to recover the bodies. Sources said the NDRF helped the trekkers in finding the bodies, by giving instructions over the phone. A police officer said, "The bodies were sent to Wai government hospital for post-mortem and later handed over to the families."
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