A 24-year-old software engineer from Nandanam in Chennai drowned in a lake while boating in Athanavur in Yelagiri Hills on Friday.
The deceased was identified as Balaji.
Police said that Balaji, along with three of his friends Sethuraman, Manikandan and Arul, had come to Tirupattur to attend the betrothal ceremony of his friend, Gopi, on Thursday. After the ceremony, the friends went to Yelagiri Hills.
On Friday, Balaji and his friends went for a boat ride around 3 pm. Though the self help group members in-charge of the boat house issued lifejackets to them, Balaji removed it, added the police.
Their pedal boat reportedly got stuck in silt and Balaji got down to push it out. “When they were nearing the boat house, Balaji tried to wear his pair of trousers that he took off when he got off the boat to push it out of the silt. In the process, he lost balance and fell into the water,” said the police.
Though Manikandan and Arul jumped into the water, they were not able to save Balaji. Fire service personnel fished out Balaji’s body after nearly two hours, added the police. Yelagiri police have registered a case.
Man Held for Hunting
A 48-year-old man was arrested on Thursday for possessing a single barrel muzzle-loading gun without licence and using it for hunting wild animals. Elumalai, from Perumal Kuttai in L G Pudur, was arrested by forest officials after they spotted him hunting wild rabbits and other animals inside the Punganur Reserve Forest area on Thursday. The forest officials later handed him over to the Katpadi police.