UP student drowns in lake, family suspects foul play

Lucknow, March 24 A 21-year-old student is suspected to have died by drowning in the Kathauta lake in the Gomti Nagar area here.

The incident happened on Wednesday and the deceased has been identified as Prabal Rajpoot. His friends claimed that he died accidentally, but his family suspected foul play in his death.

The post-mortem report on Wednesday night, revealed drowning as the cause of his death.

Prabal's father, Abhishek Rajpoot said on Thursday that "When I saw Prabal in hospital, he had some wounds on his forehead, therefore I demand that an inquiry should be done and justice should be delivered to us."

Additional DCP, East Zone, Qasim Abidi said that the post-mortem examination has revealed drowning as the cause of death, while the viscera has been preserved for further examination.

"No complaint has been given by Prabal's family about allegations against anybody, so far," said the officer.

According to reports, Prabal, a student of a prominent private university, went out with his friends near the Kathauta lake when he slipped and fell into the water body and drowned.

"Family members are suspecting that there is something wrong, hence we are probing the matter and verifying the facts," the police said.

Prabal, reports said, had been asked to come to the lake by his friends.

Investigating officer, Ajeet Kumar said that Prabal, along with his friends, was sitting near the Kathauta lake, when a mobile phone of one of his friends fell into the lake. Prabal tried to grab the mobile phone and slipped into the lake.

On seeing Prabal drowning, his friend Akshay also jumped into the water to rescue him, but his feet got entangled in the wild grass inside the water and he was not able to reach out to Prabal.

The locals took Prabal out from the lake and was rushed to the Lohia hospital where doctors declared him dead.