BENGALURU: The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team on Sunday afternoon fished out the body of a 30-year-old techie, Sachin Machaiah, who drowned in Kalkere Lake in Ramamurthynagar early on Saturday morning after venturing into the lake in an abandoned coracle. Sachin and his friend Ulhas Shamraj (30), who were reportedly drunk, ventured into the lake after a birthday party.
A senior NDRF official said that the body was found around 2 pm on Sunday after searching for a day-and-a-half continuously.
The operations began early on Sunday and the NDRF team used cameras to trace the body. Experts swimmers from NDRF went in four separate rafts and lifted the body which was stuck in silt on the lakebed.
The body was then shifted to Ambedkar Hospital for the postmortem before it was handed over to his family, who had arrived from Virajpet on being informed about the tragedy. They took his mortal remains to Virajpet for the last rites.
A police officer from Ramamurthynagar police station said that a case of accidental death has been registered and if the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike officials file a complaint, then a case of trespassing would also be taken up against Sachin and Ulhas.
The police on Sunday recorded Ulhas’ statement. Sachin and Ulhas were former colleagues at a company in Manyata Tech Park and reportedly met for a birthday party of a common friend on Friday evening.
Later, they decided to take a stroll by Kalkere Lake and took out the coracle when the accident occurred.
The tragedy struck when they were right in the middle of the lake.
The paddle that they were using slipped from their hands and fell into the water, forcing them to paddle using their hands to get back to the shore.
While doing so, the coracle started rocking and capsized. Ulhas, who could swim, reached the shore, while Sachin, who did not know how to, drowned.
As soon as he reached the shore and realised that Sachin had drowned, Ulhas alerted the fire and emergency services personnel.
After searching the lake waters for Sachin, the NDRF was called. Family members of Sachin and Ulhas refused to comment as they were in shock.