Jadavpur Univ student drowning: Boatman held

Police arrested the boatman Sheikh Saifuddin on Friday in connection with the incident in which a second year computer science student of Jadavpur University went missing after falling into river Hooghly.

The incident had taken place on Thursday afternoon when 19-year-old Raunak Saha, a resident of Salt Lake, was taking ride in a boat with five other friends.

They had boarded the boat from Princep Ghat and the incident took place at 3.30 pm on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the police are yet to find out Raunak. Divers were pressed and the search operation continued for hours in river Hooghly.

The police had got two different versions from his friends and the boatman. As a result, the police interrogated the boatman as well as all four of his friends including the two girls.

Saifuddin was arrested after police found discrepancies in his statement.

His friends had claimed that Raunak fell into the river when he was trying to call the boatman who was in a steamer with which their boat was anchored.

However, the boatman had initially claimed that he had seen one of the four friends pushing Raunak into the river.

Raunak’s family members lodged a complaint with the police on Friday.

The police came to know after the medical tests of the friends of Raunak that they had consumed alcohol. 

His family members suspect foul play behind the incident and claimed that he used to fear water a lot.

As a result, he was forcefully taken to the middle of the river in the boat.

The police have questioned some other friends of Raunak and they also went through his Facebook posts and messages in other social media to ascertain whether he had rivalry with any of his friends.

His teachers said that he was a regular student in the university.

On Thursday too, Raunak had gone to Jadavpur University and attended classes as usual.

Police suspect that he went along with his friends after attending the classes.

His family members refused to believe that he fell into the river accidentally and demanded probe into the incident.