In a tragic incident, four undergraduate students of the Ravenshaw University drowned in the Mahanadi at the Jobra Barrage here on Thursday afternoon. Rescue personnel fished out the bodies to be sent to the SCB Medical College Hospital for post-mortem, said Cuttack DCP Sanjeev Arora. Five students of the varsity had gone near the barrage for a bath. Quoting eyewitnesses, police said the five were swept away by strong water current, but one of them, Amit Meher of Balangir district, managed to swim back to the shore. The deceased were identified as Sahanawaz Khan, Debi Prasad Rath, Pyarimohan Pradhan and Pritiranjan Das. All the five students were from self-financing courses of the university and had their annual day function scheduled later in the evening in the campus. Soon after the news of the incident spread, the district Collector, the city DCP and the university’s Vice-Chancellor and Registrar rushed to the spot and supervised the rescue operation. Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) and fire brigade personnel took more than three hours to retrieve the bodies from the water.
