Odisha: Engineering student drowns as motorcycle skids into overflowing nullah

Baripada: An engineering student drowned after the motorcycle he was riding on with his friend sitting pillion was swept away by floodwater in a nullah on Kerko-Pratappur road near Haripur in Mayurbhanj district last night.

The deceased has been identified as Bikash Dandapata alias Bubun, a student of Mayurbhanj School of Engineering here. He was a resident of Singtia village near Badasahi.

The incident occurred at around 9.30 pm yesterday, when Bikash was returning from the college with his friend Akasha Nayak after attending a campus recruitment drive. As floodwater was flowing above the culvert over Madhavi nullah near Haripur, the two friends got swept away along with motorcycle.

On receiving information, police along with a firefighting team reached the spot and launched a search operation with the help of locals. After a while, Akash was rescued from the waterbody and rushed to a hospital. After hours of efforts, the firefighting team fished out Bikash’s body at around 2.30 am today.

Meanwhile, an unnatural death case has been registered with Badasahi police in this connection and body of the deceased sent for post-mortem.