VIJAYAWADA: A 27-year-old masters student from Andhra Pradesh has been missing since falling into a river during a picnic in California on Saturday. Putta Naresh, a native of Bandipalem in Jaggaiahpet mandal in Krishna district and a student of engineering at Northwestern Polytechnic University in California, fell into a river while riding a boat at Del Valle Regional Park near Livermore on Saturday.
Search operations were carried out on Sunday, but were called off at sunset. They are expected to resume on Monday.
Naresh went to California last year to pursue an MS degree. He is the son of Poornachandra Rao, a farmer, who sold one acre of land to send his only son abroad. The family received a phone call from the US informing them about the incident on Saturday.
"We were informed that Naresh had gone on a boat ride and fell into the river accidentally. The search operations are going on and we are hopeful that he is safe," said Ramesh and Sekhar, cousins of Naresh. The family said Naresh called his parents, Poornachandra Rao and Ramadevi, on Friday and informed them that his first year exams had concluded and that he would be going to the Del Valle Regional Park with friends for the weekend.