- Joined
- Mar 3, 2014
- Messages
- 2,938
- Likes
- 3,342
A 19-year-old computer science and engineering student at Jadavpur University is feared to have drowned in the Hooghly during a boat ride with friends to celebrate the end of their examinations.
Salt Lake resident Rounak Saha, the only child of his parents, was missing till late on Thursday. The four friends with him - two classmates from JU and two girls studying in private engineering colleges - were questioned at South Port police station until well past 11pm.
The students were allowed to go home close to midnight.
According to the friends, they had hired a wooden boat at Pani Ghat, travelled upstream to Gwalior Ghat, about 500 metres north of Prinsep Ghat, where Rounak tried to hop onto a stationary boat and fell into the river. "He (Rounak) lost balance," an officer quoted the youths as saying.
The last post that appeared on Rounak's Facebook timeline is a picture showing the five friends together. It was posted at 7.48pm on November 22, apparently by one of the two girls who were with him on the boat on Thursday.
Police sources said the friends mentioned having a drink or two during their day out, nothing unusual for second-year college students. But a senior officer said this was yet to be verified.
Sources said police had identified the boatman who is likely to have witnessed the incident. The boatman, a frail man clad in a lungi, was questioned at South Port police station.
Investigators have found a mismatch between what the friends said and the boatman's statement, sources said.
The police intend starting a case against the boatman for alleged negligence. "The boat was a licensed one, yet it did not have any safety equipment. We are contemplating a case of negligence against the boatman. Till now, we have not received any complaint from the boy's parents," said Sudeep Sarkar, deputy commissioner of the port division.
Rounak's parents - father Subrata Saha is a senior official at the office of the accountants general, Bengal - had reached South Port police station soon after being informed of the incident and stayed there till late in the night. They were made to sit in a room while the police interrogated their son's friends.
The police maintained that the couple didn't lodge any complaint.
Back at home, Rounak's grandfather Pankaj Choudhury said nobody in the family knew that he had gone for a boat ride with friends. This is not unusual for college students either.
"Why would he plan a boat ride when he did not know how to swim? He spoke to us earlier in the day but did not mention any plan to go for a boat ride with friends," Choudhury said at their home in Purbachal Cluster III.
Around 9.10pm, the four friends were taken out of the police station to a hospital in a police vehicle. They were brought back after more than an hour. By this time, anxious relatives of the four had gathered outside the police station.
"My son called me to inform that Rounak had fallen into the river. They have been very close friends since they were in school," said the father of one of the boys.
One of the girls made a call to her mother from the police station to inform her about the incident, an officer said.
Of the two boys, one stays as a paying guest in Santoshpur. He called his elder brother to the police station.
"I am waiting for my brother to come out of this clean. I have been told that if there is no complaint, they would let him go," the elder sibling said standing outside the police station around 10.30pm.
An alumnus of South Point High School, Rounak had enrolled for one of the most sought after engineering streams at JU. Only the top 100 out of 1.1 lakh candidates taking the joint entrance examination get into the computer science department of JU.
Neighbours described Rounak as a "simple boy" fond of football and cricket. "He has always been studious and a football player. He had also trained in a Salt Lake cricket centre for years," said neighbour Deepankar Talapatra.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1161125/jsp/calcutta/story_121248.jsp#.WDktfvl97IU
Salt Lake resident Rounak Saha, the only child of his parents, was missing till late on Thursday. The four friends with him - two classmates from JU and two girls studying in private engineering colleges - were questioned at South Port police station until well past 11pm.
The students were allowed to go home close to midnight.
According to the friends, they had hired a wooden boat at Pani Ghat, travelled upstream to Gwalior Ghat, about 500 metres north of Prinsep Ghat, where Rounak tried to hop onto a stationary boat and fell into the river. "He (Rounak) lost balance," an officer quoted the youths as saying.
The last post that appeared on Rounak's Facebook timeline is a picture showing the five friends together. It was posted at 7.48pm on November 22, apparently by one of the two girls who were with him on the boat on Thursday.
Police sources said the friends mentioned having a drink or two during their day out, nothing unusual for second-year college students. But a senior officer said this was yet to be verified.
Sources said police had identified the boatman who is likely to have witnessed the incident. The boatman, a frail man clad in a lungi, was questioned at South Port police station.
Investigators have found a mismatch between what the friends said and the boatman's statement, sources said.
The police intend starting a case against the boatman for alleged negligence. "The boat was a licensed one, yet it did not have any safety equipment. We are contemplating a case of negligence against the boatman. Till now, we have not received any complaint from the boy's parents," said Sudeep Sarkar, deputy commissioner of the port division.
Rounak's parents - father Subrata Saha is a senior official at the office of the accountants general, Bengal - had reached South Port police station soon after being informed of the incident and stayed there till late in the night. They were made to sit in a room while the police interrogated their son's friends.
The police maintained that the couple didn't lodge any complaint.
Back at home, Rounak's grandfather Pankaj Choudhury said nobody in the family knew that he had gone for a boat ride with friends. This is not unusual for college students either.
"Why would he plan a boat ride when he did not know how to swim? He spoke to us earlier in the day but did not mention any plan to go for a boat ride with friends," Choudhury said at their home in Purbachal Cluster III.
Around 9.10pm, the four friends were taken out of the police station to a hospital in a police vehicle. They were brought back after more than an hour. By this time, anxious relatives of the four had gathered outside the police station.
"My son called me to inform that Rounak had fallen into the river. They have been very close friends since they were in school," said the father of one of the boys.
One of the girls made a call to her mother from the police station to inform her about the incident, an officer said.
Of the two boys, one stays as a paying guest in Santoshpur. He called his elder brother to the police station.
"I am waiting for my brother to come out of this clean. I have been told that if there is no complaint, they would let him go," the elder sibling said standing outside the police station around 10.30pm.
An alumnus of South Point High School, Rounak had enrolled for one of the most sought after engineering streams at JU. Only the top 100 out of 1.1 lakh candidates taking the joint entrance examination get into the computer science department of JU.
Neighbours described Rounak as a "simple boy" fond of football and cricket. "He has always been studious and a football player. He had also trained in a Salt Lake cricket centre for years," said neighbour Deepankar Talapatra.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1161125/jsp/calcutta/story_121248.jsp#.WDktfvl97IU
