SIDDIPET: Five youths drowned in the Kondapochamma reservoir in Siddipet district on Saturday while trying to take a selfie. They were identified as Danush (20), Lohith (17), Jatin (17), Sahil (17) and Dineshwar (17) all residents of Musheerabad. Two others who were also the part of the selfie, Mrigank and Md Ibrahim, were rescued.
According to police, the group of friends had travelled from Mushherabad to the reservoir on motorcycles. Unaware of the reservoir’s depth, they joined hands to take a selfie. However, one of them slipped into the water, and four others drowned while trying to save him. Two standing near the shore were rescued by locals, who alerted the police.
Rescue operations were led by swimmers and supervised by Siddipet Commissioner Anuradha and Gajwel ACP Purushottam Reddy. It took about seven hours to recover the bodies, which were later shifted to Gajwel Government Hospital (GGH) for postmortem.
CM A Revanth Reddy and Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar expressed deep shock over the incident. Former minister T Harish Rao demanded Rs 15 lakh compensation for each victim’s family, while Lok Sabha member M Raghunandan Rao conveyed condolences and urged the government to extend financial support to the bereaved families. Officials are directed to ensure measures to prevent public access to the reservoir.