4 teens drown in river in Jharkhand's 'mini Goa'

Dumka, Aug 29 (PTI) Four teenagers drowned in the Mayurakshi river in Jharkhand's Dumka district, police said on Friday.

The incident happened at the Bapupur bank, a popular picnic spot known as 'mini Goa' among locals.

"Four friends, all between 16 and 17, had gone to take a bath in the river on Thursday. When they did not return, their families started searching for them. Their clothes and mobile phones were found near the bank around 3.30 pm," Ajeet Kumar, the officer-in-charge of the Jama police station, told PTI.

Divers managed to recover the body of one of the youth early on Friday, while the other three bodies were recovered a few hours later, they said.

The deceased were identified as Krishna Singh, Aryan Thakur, Aryan Anand and Krish Kumar. All of them had passed the matriculation exam from St Joseph School in Dumka and were first-year intermediate students, police said.

The bodies were sent to the Dumka Sadar Hospital for post-mortem examination, and would be handed to their families in the evening, they said.

Block Development Officer Vivek Kishore said a team of divers from the Massanjore Dam recovered the bodies before the NDRF team from Deoghar could reach the site.

"There is a provision for compensation for such drowning deaths, and we would start the process for the payment," he said.

Kishore said plans are afoot to install warning signs at the spot, requesting visitors to abstain from taking a bath and clicking selfies, to prevent such incidents in the future. PTI CORR NAM RG SOM