An impromptu excursion turned fatal after two 17-year-old students drowned when they slipped while taking a selfie by the pond of the Suvarnamukhi temple at Bannerghatta on Tuesday.
According to the Bannerghatta Police, Prashant and Jeevan kumar — both second year students of Jyothi Central Pre University College, Yelachannahalli near J.P. Nagar — had gone on motorcycles with 12 of their friends towards Bannerghatta Zoo on Tuesday morning. However, as the zoo was closed, they decided to ride to the remote Suvarnamukhi temple on a hill nearby. Around 3 p.m., after a bath in the pond, they tried to take a selfie on their mobiles. Prashant slipped into the water and Jeevan Kumar jumped in to rescue. They did not surface. Their bodies were recovered later.
An eye-witness filed a complaint with the Bannerghatta Police, who said the group of students were not forthcoming with details of the incident.
This is not the first incident at the centuries-old temple pond. Earlier this year, one person had drowned while taking a ritual bath; while in 2014, a visually-impaired person drowned while attempting a cleansing ritual supposedly to restore his eyesight.
