The body of 18-year-old Abhinav Jha, who slipped into Chhotabanki canal under MGM thana area, 5km from the city’s entry point Dimna Chowk, on Friday morning while allegedly clicking selfies with three friends, was recovered on Saturday morning.

Abhinav, a resident of Bhushan Colony in Baridih, was a Class XII student of Netaji Subhas Public School at Pokhari.

The police, who registered a case of unnatural death based on the statement made by his father Om Prakash Jha, are probing into the circumstances leading to the mishap. Abhinav’s friends Rishi Raj, Alap Banerjee and Dhiraj Singh, all residents of Baridih and of the same age as him, had told the police on Friday that the boy slipped while clicking selfies. They were all clicking selfies by turns.

However, the friends who had not reported the mishap to the Jha family or to the police on Friday, will be questioned again and their phones also examined for selfies, MGM thana OC Arvind Kumar said on Saturday.

The four had left their houses at 8am on Friday. A family source said Abhinav hardly stepped out of his house for reasons other than studies, but he had told his mother that he was going with three of his friends to NH-33. He left on his bike. Late on Friday afternoon, his family got to know about the mishap from the police.

“The four had come riding on two bikes. But after the mishap took place, the remaining three escaped on one bike. Abhinav’s bike was left on the spot. The boys neither informed the victim’s family members nor the police. We were told about the mishap by the mukhiya of Chhotabanki village,” said Kumar.

The OC added that this June, when a teenage boy from Jamshedpur drowned in the same canal, the five other boys who were with the victim, informed police about the incident and extended full co-operation in tracing out the body. But, in Abhinav’s case, these three friends fled.

The OC added they could confirm Abhinav was the victim through the abandoned bike’s registration number. “Only then could we inform the matter to the victim’s family though the body had not been traced,” he said. “Abhinav’s cellphone has not been found,” he said.

The policeman also added that people should realise clicking selfies near water bodies was risky. However, many click selfies at Domuhani bridge (Subernarekha, Sonari), Adityapur Toll bridge (Kharkai, Kadma), Jayanti Sarovar (Bistupur), Beldih Lake (Dhatkidih), Dimna lake (Dimna) and Hudco lake (Telco).