Beas tragedy: Chargesheet filed in trial court

A chargesheet has been filed in a trial court into the drowning of 24 students of a Hyderabad engineering college in the Beas river in June, police told the Himachal Pradesh High Court Monday.

"The challan has been presented against the accused before the judicial magistrate of Mandi," Advocate General Shrawan Dogra informed a division bench of Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan.

The bench directed police to make two assistant professors of the V.N.R. Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology in Hyderabad, respondents in the case.

Twenty-four B. Tech students of the engineering college were swept away June 8 near Mandi town after water from a nearby hydropower project dam was released without warning.

The professors were allegedly negligent in identifying the bodies. The court directed them to file replies within four weeks.

The court also allowed the parents of the deceased, who were on a tour to Manali, to 'intervene' in the case, and listed the matter for next hearing Nov 17.

The bench also directed the chief secretary to file an affidavit after meeting the departments concerned on steps taken by the government to prevent such mishaps in future.