Two teenage boys drowned and one was missing while taking bath in the Devi river near Machhagaon under Balikuda block on Monday.
The deceased were identified as Styabrata Barik [15] and Kanha Barik [17], hailing from Ambasala village and the missing boy, Subham Patra, is from Bhubaneswar. Meanwhile, police have detained another teenager, Tapan Marth, in Balikuda police station, a resident of Ranpur village under Nayagarh district, who was also accompanying the trio during the mishap.
Reports said that both the deceased and missing teenager were Plus II students, reading at Maharshi College, Bhubaneswar. They had come to Kanha Barik’s residence in Ambasala. On Monday afternoon, Kanha along with three of his friends went to the Devi river near Machhagaon Ghat for bathing, but sadly, three of them were swept away by strong current and Tapan narrowly escaped.
On being informed, Balikuda police, fire brigade personnel, and an ODRF team, including local villagers, rushed to the spot and launched a rescue operation. Later, two bodies were retrieved from the river on Monday evening and another one was still missing till the filing of the report.
Meanwhile, the Balikuda police seized the bodies and sent them for post-mortem in the District Headquarters Hospital after registering an unnatural death case. Tapan was being questioned in the police station. The rescue operation was deferred till Tuesday due night.