The tragic death of a boy remained undetected for hours after his panic-stricken friends who had tried in vain to save him from drowning chose to remain silent fearing a backlash.
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The deceased was identified as Ebin Sebastian, 15, of Eloor. He had gone out with his friends to play football on Thursday afternoon. After the game, they ventured into the Periyar near Eloor ferry, one of the deepest stretches of the river, for bathing.
The boy probably got caught in the current and started drowning. Efforts by one of his friends to save him did not succeed. In a state of shock, they chose to return home silently without informing anyone about the incident.
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When her son did not return even after 10 p.m., the mother checked with his friends who said they had no clue. Subsequently, she filed a man missing case with the Eloor police.
“We approached his friends at their homes and asked about the sequence of events. That was when they confessed to the incident. Had they immediately alerted someone, probably the boy could have been saved. But they were in a state of shock,” said police sources.
Though the police conducted a preliminary search along the Pathalam bund area in the night itself, it had to be called off shortly. Eventually, the body was fished out on Friday morning from exactly the spot where the boy’s friends said he had drowned. The police have registered a case for unnatural death.