A 16-year-old boy drowned in Sampigehalli lake while his five friends thought he was faking it. On April 27, around 3 pm, David Roshan Ronald and five of his friends — Suraj, Justil, Mark, Vicky and Naveen — had gone to the Bits Club on Hennur Main Road in Doddagubbi — for swimming. But upon reaching there, the boys realised they would not be allowed in as one of them had forgotten to carry the club membership card. They then decided to go to the Sampigehalli lake nearby.
The group reached the lake around 3.30 pm and started swimming. Once in the water, Ronald pretended to be drowning. When the friends rushed to his rescue, he came out laughing and mocked at them. He played the prank again and his friends fell for it. But the third time he went into the water, he did not come out for long. His friends thought he was trying to befool them yet again and didn’t go to his rescue.
There were just bubbles and Ronald didn’t come out. Realising that he had drowned, his friends got scared and fled the spot. They didn’t tell anyone about the incident until the afternoon of April 28 when Mark opened up to his parents. Ronald’s family learnt about the incident the same evening when they got a call from the Sampigehalli police station.
Police and emergency services personnel rushed to the lake and fished out Ronald’s body. They later called his father James to identify the body. The body was later sent for post-mortem. The Sampigehalli police have registered a case of unnatural death but ruled out foul play by friends or others.
Ronald’s family lives in Cantonment railway quarters in Shivajinagar. He had taken the SSLC exams which concluded earlier this month.