Disaster team fails, villagers fish out body from river

RANCHI: Villagers on Monday fished out the body of a youth from a 15-feet-deep trench in Rangrori river under Khunti police station area, a day after a National Defence Relief Fund (NDRF) team made an abortive bid to recover the body.
The incident happened when Dipu Vishwakarma (20) along with a group of friends went to the river to have a bath on Independence Day. As the river was in spate, Dipu slipped and called out to his cousin, Rishab Vishwakarma (21), for help. However, the strong currents swept both of them away. While Dipu’s body was recovered late on Saturday night by a team of police and villagers, Rishab remained traceless.
On Sunday, a team from the NDRF arrived at the spot but could not retrieve the body, believed to be stuck between rocks, because of the inclement weather.
Hundreds of villagers, however, undertook the operation with the help of police on Monday. They dumped several sandbags into the river and diverted the river current. Later, they conducted a puja and started the operation. Many of them formed a human chain with the help of ropes and dived into the river and retrieved the body.
Rishab’s maternal uncle, Neeraj Vishwakarma, thanked the villagers who spared no effort and took a huge risk to recover the body.
Khunti SP Ashutosh Shekhar appreciated the villagers, who played a crucial role in retrieving the body.