Chennai/Bengaluru, Feb 17 (IANS): The body of a 37-year-old man hailing from Tamil Nadu's Salem district, who was allegedly shot by the Karnataka forest department officials during a hunting expedition in Karnataka, was found floating in Pallar river at Erode on Friday.

The deceased has been identified as Raja, who had gone to the forest along with his friends from Mettur and Dharmapuri on February 14.

The family members of Raja and his friends said that the Karnataka forest department officials opened fire at them seeing them in the forest.

The relatives of Raja alleged that he got hit by a bullet and reportedly went missing.

The friends of Raja, who went with him for the alleged hunting expedition, told mediapersons that he jumped into the river to escape from the forest officials and had gone missing since then.

The decomposed body of Raja has been sent to the government hospital in Mettur. His post-mortem will be conducted on Saturday and only then it could be ascertained whether he got hit by a bullet.

The Karnataka Police had lodged a complaint with the Madeswaram Malai police station regarding the incident and had alleged that hunters had allegedly fired at them.