BENGALURU: It has been more than 48 hours since fire personnel began their search operation to find 26-year-old earthmover operator Shanthakumar, who was washed away in a drainage in Kurubarahalli on Saturday evening.
On Monday, a local news channel received a call from a resident, Javed, who claimed to have seen a body floating towards Kengeri. Acting on this, three teams began searching for Shanthakumar around Kengeri but failed to find anything and called off the search operation by evening.
A senior police officer said that special teams with some 200 people, including BBMP staff, have been searching for Shanthkumar. The teams were at work in Kambipura, Hampapura and Kumbalagudu, covering about 30km with the help of three boats and 20 earthmovers and other machines. An NDRF team also joined the search operation on Monday. The team members suspect that he might be stuck in the silt somewhere. Efforts were on to track his mobile phone but even that switched off. Shanthakumar was using his mobile phone and had earphones on while operating the earthmover at the time of the incident.
A fire department officer said they will continue with the search operation for a few more days. Police said they have recorded the contractor’s statement and will registered an FIR. However, if the family approaches the police, they will take action depending on whether Shanthakumar was forced to work overtime.