Pune: Body of Delhi engineer located in Lonavala valley, efforts on to retrieve it

Police officials said Farhan, who was an employee of a robotics firm in Delhi, had come to Kolhapur last week for work and then reached Pune. He undertook a trek to the forest area around Nagphani, also known as Duke’s Nose.

The police are yet to ascertain how Farhan lost his life. The identification was initially made based on his clothes and later by taking photos from a distance.

Till now, police investigation has revealed that Farhan started his trek on the morning of May 20. He climbed the Duke’s Nose and was returning when he realised that he had lost his way. In his last communication with a friend in Delhi on the afternoon of May 20, before he became untraceable, Farhan told the friend that he had lost his way in the forest. He had even told him to initiate a search if he could not find a way out in a couple of hours.

An extensive search and rescue operation had been launched after Farhan’s family members approached the Pune Rural police. The search parties consisted of local villagers, teams from Pune Rural police and trekkers from search and rescue groups – Shivdurg Mitra from Lonavala and Yashwant Hikers from Khopoli. The police dog squad and drones were pressed into action to locate Farhan and his family members and friends had also joined in the search operation.