With the recovery of three more bodies of the Engineering students of VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Hyderabad on Thursday, the total number of the bodies extricated so far has gone up to 13. Twelve bodies of students and one of the tour operator are yet to be retrieved. One body was fished out on Wednesday and two on Thursday, Devesh Kumar, Deputy Commissioner, said.
The three bodies have been identified as those of M Shiv Prakash Sharma, Ashish Mantha and Macharla Akhil, all of Hyderabad. One of the bodies fished out on Wednesday had been identified as that of TBD Tarun. A massive search operation had been launched on June 15 when every inch of the length of 5-km long river-bed had been dried up and thoroughly scanned and searched by over 700 personnel of police, Army, paramilitary units, ITBP men, jawans of Navy and Himachal Police besides the divers of BBMB, Navy and NDRF. It had been presumed that the dead bodies flowed to Pandoh Dam.The Beas was in spate and the larji Hydel Project authorities had been compelled to open the gates of the dam because the level of the dam swelled. The latest multi-beam sonar technology which had failed in the river proved successful in Pandoh Dam in tracing the dead. Divers are hopeful to retrieve all the left over 13 dead bodies 12 of students and one of the tour operator.