BENGALURU: A 22-year-old youth, who was swimming in Panathur Lake, drowned as he could not reach the shore after he felt tired midway on Sunday evening. Fire and emergency services personnel recovered the body around 9 pm.
The deceased, Anil, was a resident of Panathur and hailed from Nepal. He worked as a housekeeper at a paying guest accommodation.
The police said three friends — Anil, Dinesh Sharma (26) and Upendra Sharma (24) -- went to the lake in Marathahalli. Anil and Dinesh got into the lake for a swim, while Upendra stayed on the bund and was recording a video.
After reaching the middle of the lake, Dinesh swam back to the shore, but Anil could not and drowned, even as Upendra recorded on his mobile phone the horror unspooling in front of him. Dinesh and Upendra alerted the police and fire and emergency services.
Firefighters from Sarjapur Road rushed to the lake and recovered the body after over a four-hour operation. The body was later sent for postmortem.
The police suspected that the youth might have been under the influence of alcohol and Anil was too fatigued to swim back to the shore. The postmortem will reveal the exact reason behind the death as Anil how to swim, the police said. Based on a complaint filed by Anil’s parents, a case have been registered at the Marathahalli policed station.