Were among five friends who had gone to Meenakshipura village for a birthday party

Mysore/Mysuru: Three students who had gone for a birthday party drowned at KRS backwaters at Meenakshipura village in Yelwal hobli of Mysuru taluk yesterday evening. The three were among five friends who had gone to the backwaters to celebrate the birthday of a friend.

The deceased have been identified as Bharath (20), son of Contractor Devegowda and Parvathi couple of Paduvarahalli, Praveen Noel (20), son of Noel of Ramakrishnanagar and Varun (21), son of Papanna, a native of Ballenahalli and presently residing near Surya bakery in Hebbal here. The other two friends, who had gone with them are Manoj and Vignesh.

Bharath of Paduvarahalli had celebrated his birthday two days ago. He was pursuing his degree at a private college on Hunsur Road. Following his birthday two days ago, Bharath, who wanted to give a party to his friends, took five of them to the backwaters at Meenakshipura village on Saturday evening.

At about 4.30 pm, all the five friends ventured into the water and Vignesh told them that he would keep his mobile phone on the shore and came to the shore where they had kept their clothes. Meanwhile, the other four friends began to drown and Manoj, who knew swimming, swam to the shore, while the other three were drowned.

Expert swimmers and divers were summoned to the spot and the body of Bharath was fished out on the same day. As it grew dark, the search operation was suspended. The search operation resumed this morning and swimmers and divers were searching for the remaining two bodies when we went                                    to the press.

Yelwal Sub-Inspector Shantharaju has registered a case.