Two teenagers drown in lake on IIT-Madras campus

CHENNAI: Two teenagers drowned in a lake on the IIT-Madras campus after a rowing boat capsized on Thursday afternoon.
The deceased have been identified as Murthy Pandiarajan, 17, a resident of Tamil Nadu Housing Board complex at Kanagam, and his friend R Gerald, 19, a resident of Kanagam. Police said Murthy had written Class 12 examination and had been waiting for the result while Gerald was an ITI student.
An IIT-Madras source said the two teenagers had entered the campus after scaling a wall.Since they hadn’t entered the campus through the gates, IIT-Madras was unaware of how the accident had occurred.
As many as six teenagers scaled the compound wall, which is very low on the Kanagam side. They went to the lake to swim. The security guards at the IIT-M told police that the teenagers had often entered the campus by scaling the wall and they (security) had informed the IIT-M management about it.
Police said IIT-M students had left behind a boat for rowing in the lake. The six teenagers used the boat for a joyride. A few of them were standing on the boat. When the boat oscillated, they lost control of it and it capsized. All the six occupants fell into 20-foot-deep water in the middle of the lake.
Four of them managed to swim to the bank. They told police that they realised that Pandiarajan and Gerald were missing only after they returned to the banks.
On being informed, police and fire and rescue services personnel rushed to the spot and started efforts to retrieve the bodies.
The Kotturpuram police registered a case under the Section 174 (unnatural death) of the CrPC.