They went “live” on Facebook while on a joy ride in a boat in Vena reservoir near Nagpur late on Sunday evening to celebrate the birthday of one of them, but did not return alive to relive the post uploaded on the social network site. The Facebook “live” tragedy claimed eight lives at Nagpur. Till Monday evening, the police had recovered seven of the eight youngsters drowned in the mishap.
There were in 11 youngsters on the boat, when they went for a joy boat ride at 6.30 pm on Sunday in the Vena reservoir, located 22 km from Nagpur. Those occupying the boat included two boatmen. Soon after the joy ride began, the youngsters began to revel in the salubrious environs of the reservoir.
Minutes after talking some selfies, the youngsters went “live” on Facebook. As the boat reached the midpoint, the youngsters began to sing and dance. Before long, the boat tilted, overturned and
capsised. The incident reportedly took place at 7.45 pm.
Most of youngsters in the overturned did not know swimming. Nor had they carried life jackets. Of the 11 youngsters, eight met watery grave.
The police identified the deceased as Rahul Jadhav (22), Ankit Arun Bhoskar (22), Paresh Katoke (23), Atul Bhoyar, Pankaj Doifode, Pratik Ambade, Roshan Dnyaneshwar Khandale and Akshay Mohan Khandale. Two brothers – Amol M Dodke and Roshan M Dodke – and one of the boatmen Atul G Bavne, swam and survived.
Nagpur district Guardian Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule, who rushed to the site on Monday morning and supervised the relief operations, said the boat involved in the boat was carrying 11 persons, including the boatmen, when the mishap took place late on Sunday evening. “From what we know so far, the youngsters were clicking selfies on their mobiles when the tragedy occurred," Bawankule said.
Maintaining that the incident was avoidable, the minister exhorted the people not to indulge in such activities like clicking selfies in the reservoir to prevent similar tragedies.
The police attributed the mishap to the revelry indulged in by the youngsters, who danced and posed for the “live” shoot that one of the youngsters was doing from his mobile phone, thus tilting the boat and contributing to the capsize of the vessel.