Mirzapur, June 30: Two of the four youths who had come from Lucknow for a picnic, Ankit Dubey (23) and Bhanu Pratap Maurya (25), slipped and drowned in deep water while taking selfies and photographs. This incident happened when they were bathing under the natural waterfall in the popular tourist place Lakhaniya Dari in Mirzapur, police said.
According to the police, both the bodies were taken out of the water at around 9am on Monday morning with the help of divers Rakesh Sahni and Rohit Sahni called from Balu Ghat Chunar. After this, the bodies were carried for three kilometers on foot to Lakhaniya Dari Road, from where the police sent the bodies for post-mortem.
The four youths had come to Varanasi from Lucknow on Saturday and after spending the night in a hotel there, they reached Mirzapur’s natural site Lakhaniya Dari on Sunday on two rented bikes. Deceased Ankit was a resident of Kailashpuri Geeta Palli, Thana Alambagh, Lucknow and Bhanu Maurya was from Maharaj Nagar, Thana Dharhara, Lakhimpur Kheri. Both the youths were working in an NGO associated with Medical College Lucknow after completing their MSW studies, police informed.
The two surviving companions Ayush Gupta and Amit Verma said that they had come to visit this place after seeing it on YouTube and Google. Seeing people already bathing there, they also got into the water and started making videos. During this time, Ankit’s foot slipped and Bhanu also drowned while trying to save him.
They told that a lot of efforts were made to save him, but no one was successful. Later he himself walked to the police and informed them.
Family alleged conspiracy
Meanwhile, deceased Ankit’s brother Vijay Dubey has made a sensational allegation. He has demanded that a case be registered against his companions suspecting them of a planned murder.
He alleged that his brother was lured from Lucknow and brought here and was murdered by drowning him in water in a planned manner.
After this allegation, the police have taken the two surviving companions into custody and interrogation is going on.
31st drowning incident in twelve years
According to diver Rakesh Sahni, he has been retrieving the bodies of drowned people in Chuna Dari area since 2013 and has retrieved a total of 31 bodies so far. He told that there are deep water pools in this area which are not visible to the naked eye, due to which accidents happen every year.
Lakhaniya Dari temporarily closed
After this heart-wrenching incident, the police has temporarily closed the Lakhaniya Dari area for tourists with immediate effect. SI Amarnath Yadav told that after the Chuna Dari incident, entry of common people has been banned here for security reasons. PAC force will remain deployed and no one will be allowed to enter the water area.