Odisha: College Girl Falls Into Burla Power Channel On Evening Out With Instagram Friend

Bhubaneswar: A girl went missing after falling into the Burla Power Canal here in Odisha’s Sambalpur district on Tuesday while meeting a person, whom she had befriended over Instagram about 3 weeks ago.

According to sources, the girl, identified as Nisha Jha of Jharsuguda, is a BBA student of a Rourkela-based private educational institution. Her male friend is a Plus III student of Gangadhar Meher University in Sambalpur.

The sources further said that she slipped when water suddenly gushed in when they met at the spot around 5 pm. It is being reported that this was their first meeting and the girl was visiting her sister at Jagannath Colony in Sambalpur town. Some videos of the girl taken by her male friend have also surfaced.

Fire Services personnel initiated an operation to rescue the girl till late last night, but she is yet to be traced. “We were informed about the incident around 6.30 pm. After a frantic search till 10.30 pm, we could not trace out the missing girl. Now, a 10-member team has resumed the search operation,” said a Fire Services personnel from Burla.

Police have also started a probe and recorded statement of some youths, who attempted to rescue her. Her male friend has been detained to ascertain the circumstances leading to the mishap.

Notably, a BTech graduate, Chinmayee Priyadarshini Sahu, had died after “jumping into” the power channel of Hirakud Dam from the PC Bridge on NH-53 under Burla police station limits this March. A second year mechanical engineering student of Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT), Burla, had also died after drowning at power channel of Hirakud Dam at Athra Hazar under Burla police limits in April 2022.