In a tragic incident, Rama Chandra Sahu (55), a Grade-IV employee at the Kendrapada Municipality, and his son Smruti Ranjan (30) drowned in a pond near their house at Baniamala village under the Kendrapada Town police limits late on Tuesdaynight. Both the father and son had gone to the water body to immerse Pinda Dana (oblation rice), which is offered to ancestors to pay homage on the eve of the Diwali festival. When Sahu stepped into the pond, his feet slipped. Though his son made an attempt to rescue his father, the duo skid into the water and drowned. Some villagers later fished out the bodies and rushed them to the District Headquarters Hospital, where doctors declared them received dead. The Kendrapada Town police registered an unnatural death case in this incident, said IIC Pramod lenka.