Nearly two days after search operations began, Navy divers, on Wednesday, found the body of Raghav Uday, one of the two actors who drowned in the Thippagondanahalli reservoir after a stunt for a Kannada film.
A team of over 100 personnel from numerous State and Central rescue forces continued to scour the murky waters of the reservoir in search of body of the other actor, Anil.
Around 3.20 p.m., divers spotted the body of 32-year-old Uday floating close to the spot where he had dived from a helicopter into the reservoir as part of the climax of Maastigudi .
Officials said the body was decomposed.
A team of senior officials, including Deputy Commissioner (Bengaluru Urban) V. Shankar, and Deputy Inspector-General (Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services) H.S. Revanna, had boarded a rescue boat to oversee the operations.
“Initially, we thought that the body was one of the swimmers from a distance. It was only when there was no movement that we realised it was the body of Uday,” said Mr. Revanna.
A team of swimmers from Mangaluru eventually lifted the body onto the boat. The post-mortem was carried out at the site itself, underneath temporary shelters.
It was only around 8 p.m. that Uday’s body was taken to his residence at Yediyur.
Imran, a coracle paddler, said that it was too murky and turbid to see underwater.
The spot, where the actors had jumped into the reservoir, was over 80 feet deep.
Throughout the day, search and rescue teams circled the area where three persons, including actor Duniya Vijay who was saved, had jumped.
Pressures pumps were lowered 80 feet in the area to soften the silt, while a grappler (a long rod with multiple protrusions and fish hooks) was lowered in the hope of fishing out the body.
A drone was also deployed to circle the reservoir to verify if the bodies had been washed ashore.
