Two including teenager drown in Thane

Two people, including a teenager, were reported to have drowned in separate incidents in Thane district on Thursday.

According to the Kasarvadavli police, Chirag Joshi, 19, went out for a party with his elder brother and three of the latter’s friends to a dam near Pankhanda waterfall at Ovala on Wednesday evening.

“According to his brother’s friend’s statement, the five of them went on bikes to this water body. When they were having food, Chirag’s brother wanted water to drink. Chirag promptly replied that he would fetch it from the dam. But when he did not return after several minutes had passed, the group began a search for him. After they found the bottle he was carrying floating on the water, they informed the police,” a police officer said.

Teams of the Thane Disaster Relief Force (TDRF), the fire brigade, and the police reached the spot around 6.30 pm, officials said.

A TDRF officer said, “We looked for Chirag, but couldn’t find him. We called off our rescue operation after 8 pm. Soon after we resumed our search on Thursday morning, we found his body stuck near a rock. We fished it out and handed it over to the police.”

The police have registered an accidental death report and recorded statements of the friends. All the five were residents of Kalwa, the police officer said.

In the second case, a 32-year-old man is suspected to have drowned in a nullah near Retibunder creek in Kalwa where he had gone with his friends for fishing, police said.

Around 12 pm on Thursday, Dosa, a resident of Shanti Nagar, slipped and fell into the water body, a police officer said and added that his body was not found until a search operation was called off at 7 pm.