Selfie craze ends in grief: 2 friends drown in dam

Jhansi: Four teenagers, who went for an excursion to a dam area on Sunday evening, drowned while boating. Two of them were rescued by a villager, but the other two could not be traced despite late-night rescue efforts. The body of one of them was fished out by the SDRF team on Monday, while another is still missing.The incident took place at Railway Dam near Garia Gaon. Four Class 11 friends from a reputed public school went from their houses on the pretext of going to tuition class. They were identified as Shravan Tiwari, 19, Shaurya, 18, Vedansh Yadav, 18 and Atif Mansoori, 19. However, they went to the Railway Dam area. The place is generally isolated as it is used as a firing range by the railway police and is a prohibited area.There, all four took a boat that was lying nearby and started rowing it on their own. It is said that they started taking selfies and making reels on their mobile phones. The boat suddenly became disbalanced, and all four boys fell into the water. As they cried for help, a shepherd passing by noticed them and jumped into the river and rescued Shravan and Shaurya. Unfortunately, the other two boys drowned. A heavy police force, along with a team of divers and the fire department, arrived and started searching for the boys till late night, with no clue. On Monday morning, the search operation resumed and the divers brought out Atif's body. Meanwhile, the SDRF team from Jalaun also arrived and started searching for Vedansh, who was not traceable till evening.SDM, Sadar, Gopesh Tiwari said, "One body of Atif has been taken out while the SDRF team is searching for the other boy. The place is a firing range for RPF and is an out-of-bounds area. Police are trying to find out the reason the boys reached the place."Meanwhile, a 10-second video has gone viral in which two of the boys are seen on the boat in the middle of the river. One of them, Vedansh, is heard saying, "We have hijacked a boat and now we are enjoying the Railway Dam. I know how to swim and I will swim to safety." Ironically, Vedansh died, and his body was yet to be recovered. Both the deceased are the only children of their parents, while Vedansh's mother, a govt employee, is a single mother as his father died long before.