Picnic turns tragic, 2 friends drown

NEW DELHI: Out for a picnic to celebrate Friendship Day, two youths drowned in the Yamuna in north Delhi’s Burari on Sunday afternoon.
A group of six friends went to the river to take a dip before the picnic. Around 2pm, Sanjay (25), a resident of Swaroop Nagar, decided to enter the water but slipped and started drowning. Noticing this, Sachin (21), from Jahangirpuri, jumped in to save him, the others told the police.However, both of them soon drowned.
“As Sanjay cried for help, Sachin immediately jumped into the river without waiting for anybody. The friends said that though he managed to reach Sanjay, both of them suddenly became motionless and disappeared within a minute. When neither of them resurfaced for over a minute, the others panicked and raised an alarm,” said a senior police officer.
Passersby and locals gathered at the spot and called the police to report the matter. Cops soon called divers and civil defence teams and both were pulled out of water after an hourlong search. They were declared brought dead at hospital, the police said.
The statement of the other friends have been recorded and the police are trying to determine the sequence of the event.
“We got a call around 2.30pm and immediate actions were taken. Both the deceased were identified and their family members were informed,” said Madhur Verma, DCP north. Their bodies have been sent for postmortem but no foul play has been alleged in the case by family members, added Verma.
In another incident, a 21-year-old youth died after drowning in a canal in outer Delhi’s Bawana on Saturday evening. The police said his body could not be found despite repeated attempts by civil defence teams and divers.