30-year-old drowns while rafting in Uttarakhand

Mystery shrouds the death of a 30-year-old man from Howrah, who died after falling into the river while rafting in between Shivpuri and Lakshmanjhola on Saturday morning.

Police said the victim Ayon Bera was a resident of Malipanchghara in Howrah had gone for a trip to Uttarakhand with eight other friends on May 9.

On Sunday morning they were enjoying rafting when the mishap took place. Their raft collided with a boulder and overturned.

All nine friends and the guide fell into the rough water. Eight friends and the guide had managed to save themselves, but Bera had drowned. 

His body was fished out after around half-an-hour of the incident. He was declared brought dead when taken to a hospital. 

His friends had informed the matter to the victim’s family members. A pall of gloom descended in the area with the death of the youth who used to work in a factory at Naihati in North 24-Parganas.

The victim’s elder brother Amit Bera and one of his relatives had left for Uttarakhand immediately after receiving the news.

The situation took a worse turn when the victim’s brother went to a police station there after finding discrepancies in the statement of his brother’s friends. Each one of them narrated the incident in a different way. 

It led to his suspicion that how can his brother die when all his friends are safe. 

Members of the local rafting agency gheraoed the victim’s brother when he had taken steps to lodge a complaint alleging negligence on the part of the agency. 

They had allegedly threatened the victim’s brother that they will not allow him to take the body if he lodged a complaint. 

As a result, it became quite difficult for the residents of Howrah to bring back Ayon’s body. 

They sought intervention of the state government. It is learnt that the state agricultural marketing minister Arup Biswas and state youth affairs minister Aroop Biswas are taking necessary steps to help the family by bring the body.