Daijiworld Media Network – Bantwal
Bantwal, Aug 1: The body of Hemanth Acharya (21), a resident of Kadeshivalaya in Bantwal taluk, who had been missing for the past four days, has been recovered from the Netravati river.
His body was found floating in the middle of the Netravati river at Bajal Mugeru, under the jurisdiction of Kankanady police station.
Hemanth was reported missing from his residence on July 27. A missing person’s case was registered at the Bantwal rural police station on Monday, July 28. On Tuesday, July 29, his two-wheeler and mobile phone were found abandoned near the Jakribettu dam, within the limits of the Bantwal town police station.
Following this, a search operation was launched the same afternoon by a team comprising local divers, the fire and emergency services, and officers from both Bantwal rural and town police stations. However, no leads were found until the evening.
The search resumed on the morning of July 30, with teams combing the area from Jakribettu dam to Thumbay dam, but the efforts remained unsuccessful.
On July 31, under the coordination of Sampath Suvarna, a member of the Kadeshivalaya gram panchayat, additional teams led by Eshwar Malpe, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), and local swimmer Nisar were brought in to intensify the search. Despite scouring the river from Jakribettu to Thumbay, no results were yielded initially.
Later in the afternoon, drone-assisted search operations were conducted downstream from Thumbay dam by three different teams. By evening, the drone detected a body floating in the river. The search team then successfully retrieved Hemanth’s body from the water.