Gumla: A young engineer and a martial arts trainer drowned while bathing at Anwarajharia waterfall in Lohardaga district on Thursday.The victims were identified as Ritesh Shahdeo alias Pappu, 27, a resident of Hondga village under Kisko police station limits, and Rupesh Kumar Singh alias Raja, 30, from Sohar Kala village in Chatra district.Rupesh, who was an engineer with a private company, had arrived at his ailing maternal grandparents’ home in Hondga with his mother a day earlier. Around 10 am on Thursday, he and his maternal cousin Ritesh left for the waterfall on a motorcycle. The site, near Devdariya, is about 30 km from Hondga.The two reportedly followed a narrow mountain trail and began bathing in the lower section of the waterfall. Police suspect Ritesh slipped on the rocks and suffered a serious head injury. Rupesh is believed to have entered the water in an attempt to save him, but both drowned. Family members said neither of them knew how to swim.When the two failed to return by evening and their mobile phones were either switched off or out of network coverage, relatives began searching for them. On Friday, they found the motorcycle parked along the Kisko–Jobang road, which leads to the waterfall.Ritesh’s body was found floating in the water, while their clothes, mobile phones, slippers and other belongings were found on the bank. Rupesh’s body was recovered from a deeper section of the waterfall after nearly four hours of search.According to a relative, Ritesh trained students in martial arts at several schools and institutions and had won medals at state and national-level competitions.Lohardaga SP Sadique Anwar Rizwi said an unnatural death case had been registered. He added that the incident would be investigated and that postmortems were being conducted at Lohardaga Sadar Hospital.
