Selfie turns fatal: 7 friends celebrating birthday drowned after boat capsizes

NAGPUR: Seven students were struck by a dreadful tragedy after their boat capsized while they were taking selfies and doing a Facebook live in the Vena dam near Nagpur. It was on Sunday evening that the students, mostly in the age group 20-25, went in the middle of a reservoir on a boat during picnic. They were reportedly celebrating a birthday of one of the members and went live on Facebook. The group had no idea that the desire to click selfies would turn fatal for them. According to police, it seemed all of them gathered on one side of the boat while filming themselves which led to the capsizing. While two of the bodies were fished out on Monday, five others are yet to be traced. One body was fished out last night. The deceased have been identified as Rahul Jadhav and Ankit Bhusekar. "It seems these youngsters had hired local fishermen for boating, which is not allowed in the dam. The boat they got into was narrow. It tilted and capsized when they started clicking 'selfies' on reaching the mid point of the reservoir," the SP said. The boat carrying 11 people including three boatmen had capsized last evening. While three persons--two boatmen and a college student -- were rescued, one body was recovered last night, police said. The incident, which occurred between 6 and 6.30 pm was witnessed by a local who in turn alerted the police control room, following which a rescue operation was undertaken. Efforts are on to look for survivors, if any, he added. (With PTI inputs)