Meppadi tragedy: Two bodies recovered today; Wife’s wait ends in tears as engineer Rahul found dead
Meppadi (Kerala): Two more bodies were recovered on Thursday in the aftermath of the landslide tragedy at Kalladi in Wayanad. The bodies of excavator operator Muhammad Imran, a native of Bihar, and engineer Rahul Sharma, a native of Himachal Pradesh, were recovered from Zone 1. Muhammad Imran’s body was found first, followed later by Rahul Sharma's. With this, the death toll from the disaster has risen to five.
The other three deceased have been identified as Chandraban Pal (37), a Hitachi operator from Madhya Pradesh, Bikas Kumar Singh (40), a foreman from Bihar and Anmol Dodrai (25) from Jharkhand. Three more people are yet to be found.
The search is currently underway for construction manager Vikram Rana from Himachal Pradesh, surveyor Rakesh Guchhait from West Bengal and surveyor Azharuddin Ansari from Uttar Pradesh. Minister A P Anil Kumar stated that today's search operations are primarily focused on Zones 1 and 2.
With the recovery of Rahul’s body, his wife Kalpana’s wait has ended in tears. Kalpana had been waiting at their rented house on Chembra Road, holding onto hope that Rahul Sharma would return alive. That wait has proven futile with the recovery of his body. Rahul Sharma, an engineer, was a native of Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. Rahul and Kalpana were married just recently, on February 21. Kalpana learnt about the accident only when relatives arrived at the house after being informed by officials of Dilip Buildcon Limited, the company executing the contract for the tunnel road.
Rahul's father, Roop Dev Sharma, and his uncle, Ramveer Sharma, arrived from Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday. His brother, who works as a chef in Dubai, has also reached Wayanad after learning of the accident.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan visited the disaster site at Kalladi. He was accompanied by a delegation including CPM state secretary M V Govindan, senior leader M V Jayarajan and former MLA Sashi. Revenue Minister A P Anil Kumar also visited the accident site along with them.