On November 27, 2005, the Ravindra Bharathi Public School in Vijaywada district in Andhra Pradesh had organised a picnic on the banks of the Munneru river.
A ball that some students were playing with fell into the river. Some of them tried to retrieve it, but were caught in the current.
'My son, V Teja Sai, and C V Durga Doondieswar knew how to swim. So they jumped in to rescue their fellow students from drowning,' Valiveru Durga Maleswaran Rao said in a statement distributed to the media. 'They saved four of them but in the process lost their own lives. True, Teja Sai and Doondieswar have been awarded the Sanjay Chopra Award jointly but what is the use? They are no longer there. I want an independent inquiry into the incident,' the statement added.
Another similar tale of heroism was Manoj Chauhan's. The youngster from Indore died recscuing people from floodwaters.
Photograph: V Teja Sai's family with his picture.
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