Two middle-aged youths were washed away in the strong current of a river while trying to save their friend from drowning around midnight on Sunday in Jharkhand’s Giridih district.

The victims’ friend Shankar Kumar Mehta, however, managed to swim to safety and narrated the incident to the locals in the morning. The bodies of the two youths were rescued on Monday by local divers in the presence of local administration, police and Giridih MLA Sudivya Kumar.

According to Shankar, 30, his two friends Anand Chaurasia, 30, and Manish Mehta, 28, had planned to go to Deoghar with him for the Shrawani Mela. They started their journey on a bike from their hometown Hazaribagh and had dinner at Bengabad in Giridih district. But after dinner, they also indulged in drinking liquor and decided to take a rest at one of their friend’s houses in Dhanbad before proceeding to Deogarh in the morning.

The youths took the help of Google Maps for the route direction and after Giridih College, the map showed the route through the old bridge over the Usri river, which is under construction.

Shankar, who was riding the bike, then attempted to cross the river while the other two watched him from the shore. However, the river had a strong water current because of last week’s rain and Shankar started drowning. Seeing this, the two friends jumped into the river to rescue him but drowned in the process. Shankar somehow managed to swim to the shore.

Giridih SP Amit Renu said the bodies of the two youths have been sent for post-mortem and the police are investigating the case.

Pact to train students in digital skills

Bhubaneswar: Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University, a private university in Odisha, has announced its partnership with a digital workflow company to train students in digital skills and improve job prospects.

This programme will benefit 300 students every year and is part of a global skilling initiative called RiseUp with ServiceNow.

The integrated curriculum centred around training and certification programmes on the ServiceNow Platform enables students to pursue learning holistically, resulting in greater intellectual curiosity, enhanced problem-solving, critical thinking, and a higher understanding of digital skills at the university.

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