Excitement to take selfies, particularly at dangerous scenic places, sometimes leads to forgetfulness and subsequently to deaths.
Such a horrific incident occurred near Paralakhemundi in Gajapati district, where an engineer, identified as Rajesh Patnaik (26), drowned in the fast-flowing river Mahandratanaya on Wednesday evening. His body was recovered 20 hours on Friday morning. Rajesh along with a friend had gone to Brundaban Palace, two km from here, and climbed up a low-hanging tree to take a selfi with river water in the background. When he positioned, his I-Phone slipped from his hand and subsequently he fell down while trying to pick up the sinking mobile. Within a few seconds, he too went under the water.
His friend, who was present there, informed police. Soon, police and fire tender personnel and an ODRAF started a search operation but could not trace him as it got dark. The body was only found at 10 am on Friday.
Rajesh, son of Sibaprasad Patnaik of Kamakshanagar on the Purunapatna Road, was working as a software engineer in Bengaluru and had come home on the Dussehra vacation.
The body was handed over to the family after postmortem. A pal of gloom descended on the village as the body was cremated in the afternoon.