Odisha: Body found in drain while tracking five missing youths

ROURKELA: Six days after five trespassers mysteriously disappeared at the effluent outlet pipeline and adjacent marshland of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), the rescue team, led by Rourkela police, on Saturday retrieved a body. However, the search operation was stopped after sunset.

Rourkela SP Uma Shankar Dash said the body was recovered from inside the drain which had thick and oily industrial effluent mixed with water. It was not clear if the person died of asphyxiation or drowning, Dash added.

Police are suspecting that the other missing persons are also dead. The search operation will resume on Sunday. Police, CISF team of RSP, fire brigade and Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force personnel are carrying out the search operation.

The four youths of Sheetalpara slum, identified as Krishna Badaik, Suresh Singh, Suraj Kurmi and Raju Naik, aged between 22 and 28 years, had reportedly entered the effluent outlet of RSP apparently for stealing scrap metals during the wee hours of June 3.

However, they went missing mysteriously. Another youth, identified as Gahnu Lohar, who claimed to be aware of the pipeline route, tried to track them the next day. But, he disappeared too. Finally, the family members of the youths lodged a complaint with police on Thursday at Tangarpali station.

“The pipeline has a diameter of three feet and is about 110 metres long. It connects the marshy area inside RSP to a drain outside it for releasing water. Over the years, oily industrial effluent got deposited inside the pipeline,” IIC MR Pradhan said.