HYDERABAD: Senior IPS officer Rajiv Trivedi, who played a crucial role in retrieving the bodies of 36 Greyhounds commandos killed by Maoists in the Balimela ambush on the Andhra-Orrisa border (AOB) in 2006, is now headed to Mandi in Himachal Pradesh to recover the remaining 18 bodies of the students of VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology who were washed away in river Beas.
It is learnt that Telangana director- general of police Anurag Sharma met chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday, after which the 53-year-old Trivedi was asked to rush to Himachal Pradesh.
Trivedi, who had created history by becoming the most senior and fastest man to swim across the Palk Strait from Sri Lanka to India a few years ago, will leave for Chandigarh on Thursday morning and is likely to reach the accident spot by evening.
Trivedi, an additional DGP-rank officer, is heading the Telangana state police battalions with full additional charge of Octopus and sports.
Trivedi’s team of expert swimmers, at least 10 constables working in different parts of the state, will join him shortly. ‘’The team has been asked to assemble in Hyderabad in the next 24 hours after which they will head to Mandi,’’ sources added.
When contacted, Trivedi, who was busy packing up his underwater equipment, told Express that he would be leaving tomorrow morning. ‘’It gives immense satisfaction to note that the government chose me for the job and I will do my best for quick retrieval of the missing bodies.’’ An expert swimmer, Trivedi, a 1986-batch IPS officer was lauded for his services during the Balimela tragedy in which 36 Greyhounds commandos lost their lives after Maoists ambushed them on Balimela river.
Swimming Record
Rajiv Trivedi swam for 12 hours and 31 minutes non-stop from Sri Lanka to India and created a record. He is the only IPS officer from the country to have achieved the feat. Earlier, in 2001, he had swum across the Strait of Gibraltar in 2001. In the same year, he also swam for nearly 13 hours in the freezing English Channel starting from England and reached France but could not touch the land on the French Coast as he was thwarted by the ocean currents.
During the Balimela operation, Trivedi, then IGP, Greyhounds, along with other officers, rushed to the site where the Greyhounds commandos drowned on boats and personally pulled them ashore before ferrying them in launches to the ferry point.
Beas Tragedy: Another Body Fished Out
Hyderabad: Search and relief operations are on at Mandi/Kullu with the Telangana government making all efforts to retrieve the bodies of students who were washed away in the river Beas. On Wednesday, the body of another student -- Shabbir Hussain -- was fished out from the river. State officials are coordinating with their Himachal counterparts and central agencies like the ITBP, NDRF, etc to step up the efforts. The defence ministry has also issued instructions to Navy personnel to take up search operations at the spot. The operations suffered a blow with heavy rains that have left helicopters inoperable. Arrangements are being made to bring back Shabbir’s body to Delhi airport by road. The body will then be flown to Hyderabad on Thursday. A team of divers from Guwahati have also been pressed into action to help retrieve the bodies, a Telangana government release said.
