KULLU: Two days after a couple of men had fallen into the
Beas river
during a
scuffle
, triggered by road rage, a team of the
National Disaster Response Force
(NDRF) on Wednesday recovered the body of the
Punjab tourist
at Brindabani in Mandi district.
The deceased has been identified as Amandeep Singh, a resident of Nakodar in Jalandhar district of Punjab.
Amandeep and Ganga Ram, the driver of a tempo traveler, had fallen into the Beas river during a scuffle on Monday evening.
While the NDRF was able to retrieve the body of Amandeep, they had not succeeded in locating Ganga Ram, a resident of Karsog in Mandi district by the time of the filing of this report.
According to a police officer, the incident happened on Monday evening around 7.30 pm when Amandeep and Ganga Ram picked a fight over overtaking at Brindabani, around 3 km from Mandi town on the Chandigarh-Manali highway.
"Both Amandeep, who was returning from Manali with his family in a car, and Ganga Ram, were stuck in a traffic jam at Brindabani and had an argument over overtaking. They got out of their vehicles and started fighting along the highway. During the scuffle, both fell down into the river below," said the officer.
The local administration had started a search and rescue operation on Monday after the onlookers had alerted the police, but could not trace the duo.
The operation was resumed on Tuesday as a State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) team searched the river, but without any success.
On Wednesday, the NDRF and the SDRF teams again started the search operation in the morning. "We began a joint search operation at 9 am today and succeeded in recovering the body of Amandeep by 3.30 pm. However, Ganga Ram is still to be located. The spot from where they fell down has steep rocks and the possibility of Ganga Ram's survival is bleak. Though the water level in Beas is low these days, it's extremely cold especially during the night," said an official from the district administration, Mandi.
"The family members of both the men were informed on Monday and they had reached Mandi on Tuesday," said the official, adding that the search operation would continue on Thursday.
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