Bhubaneswar: The 26-year-old son of a businessman reportedly drowned in Salunki river in Odisha’s Kandhamal district today.

Deceased Jagadish Patra, son of businessman Rama Rao of Ganesh Bazar at Phulbani, along with four of his friends had gone on a picnic to Salunki riverbanks near Budhadani village in the afternoon.

The incident took place when Jagadish along with his friends was taking bath in the river. He got drifted towards deep water and went missing in the river, sources said.

On being informed, the Fire Brigade personnel reached the spot and launched an operation to trace him. Jagadish’s body was later fished out from the river, sources added.

Phulbani Sadar police seized the body and sent it for postmortem after registering a case in this regard.