Bengaluru: A day after Raghav Uday's body floated to the top of the T.G. Halli reservoir on Wednesday, the second stuntman, Anil Kumar’s body surfaced at around 5.30 am on Thursday.
Both Raghav and Anil had drowned in the lake on Monday noon while they were shooting for a climax scene of the Sandalwood movie Maasti Gudi. The duo had jumped into the water from a helicopter overhead, along with the lead actor Duniya Vijay who was wearing a life jacket which saved his life.
The National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force along with the divers who started the search operation on Thursday morning spotted Anil’s body floating in the water. The body was bloated and in a heavily decomposed state and had been fed on by the fish.
The search team had used high voltage flashlights on Wednesday night to locate Anil’s body after they recovered Uday’s body post noon.
Anil’s body was subjected to a post-mortem on the banks of the lake in a shamiana just as Uday’s had on Wednesday. Anil’s brother Harish told reporters that the body had been kept for public viewing at his residence in Kadrehalli before it was cremated around 3.00 pm.
Actors Duniya Vijay and Jaggesh requested the people gathered there not to take pictures of the bodies and share them, after a photo of Uday’s body in a decomposed state was circulated on social media and WhatsApp.
Uday’s body was cremated at Banashankari crematorium at around 2.30 pm. Anil’s body was cremated a little later, the family said.
Farmer dies in freak accident at TG Halli
NDRF and SDRF personnel who arrived at the T.G. Halli reservoir to locate the bodies of the two missing stuntmenm where witness to one more horrific death, that too in the midst of their search. 27-year-old Yellaiah, a local farmer, was victim to a freak accident after his group was attacked by bees, resulting in him falling into the tank as he struggled to get away.
NDRF and SDRF personnel at work at the T.G. Halli reservoir (Photo: DC)
The police identified the missing man as Yellaiah, a farmer from Dodda Mannu Gudda Dhoddi in Kasaba hobli in Ramanagara taluk. Yelliah (27), along with his friends had come to see the search operation to the lake on Tuesday.
Since the police were not allowing locals through the gate, Yellaiah and his friends sneaked into the forest through a barbed wire fence and started walking towards the lake. On the way, the group was attacked by bees, and the men ran helter-skelter to avoid the bee stings. In the melee, Yellaiah to avoid the stings, jumped into the water and drowned, but his friends told his family members that they did not see him at all. Hence Yellaiah’s brother Kaalaiah lodged a missing complaint with the Taverekere police and told them that he suspected his brother also could have drowned.
Relatives of stuntman Anil at the accident site.
The police with the NDRF and SDRF personnel’s help, the suspected lake areas were searched for and on Thursday afternoon, Yellaiah’s body too surfaced. The body of 27-year-old Yellaiah surfaced 50 meters away from the spot where the two actors had drowned. A senior official from the National Disaster Response Force said that “According to the victim’s friends, Yellaiah had tried to swim in the reservoir to avoid a bee attack and later was found missing.
Taverekere police shifted the body for post-mortem and summoned his friends who had accompanied him for questioning to ascertain whether they were any foul play in his death. The search teams then called off the operations from the reservoir and were seen packing.
Sandalwood stars visit homes of Uday, Anil
Stars from the Kannada film industry visited the houses of both Anil and Uday on Thursday. Puneeth Rajkumar and Duniya Vijay were spotted at Anil’s residence, while former minister R. Ashoka was seen consoling Uday’s family in Banashankari.
