Pics: Roopam Studio, Kaup
Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)
 
Udupi, Aug 10: Two students studying in Manipal University Manipal, drowned while trying to swim in the sea on Wednesday August 10 evening. Abhijeet Singh(18), from Chandigarh, who is a student of Manipal Institute of Technology, and Jana Kish (21), a citizen of Macedonia, lost their lives in the incident. The tragedy occurred at around 3.30 pm. It is learnt that Jana Kish had come to Manipal in July for internship under Student Exchange Scheme, from Bangalore.

Immediately after the incident, local divers like Dayanand Suvarna, Deepak Kotian, and Shekhar Suvarna, ventured into the sea. They recovered the body of the girl student within a short time thereafter. Search for the body of Abhijeet is continuing.

The two were from among a group of five students from Manipal, who came to Kaup beach for fun and frolic. Four among them were foreigners, and Abhijeet was the only Indian in the group. Initially, all the five had entered the sea near the Light House Kaup, but three of them came back and preferred to sit on the shore, after growing fearsome about the turbulent sea. Abhijeet and Jana were the only students from among the group to continue to swim in the sea.

The locals said they had warned the group not to enter the sea because of the high tide. They revealed that the group overlooked their repeated warnings. The incident brought to the fore the immediate need to deploy life guards and life jackets at the beach at Kaup, demand for which had been frequently made to the department of tourism in the past. Every year, a number of lives are lost in the beach, because of the adventurism of the young visitors.

Kaup circle inspector, Cheluvaraju, visited the spot. The policemen have registered a case. Officials of Manipal University also arrived at the spot.