Missing IIT Roorkee student's body recovered from canal after 5-day search

The body of a missing IIT Roorkee MBA student was recovered from the Ganganahar canal after an five-day intensive search operation.

The body of an MBA second-year student from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee was recovered from the Ganganahar canal on Monday, a week after he went missing.

Ashish Shukla, a resident of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, had gone missing on February 11 after slipping into the Ganganahar canal in Roorkee. Following the incident, authorities launched an intensive search operation that continued for nearly five days.

On Monday morning, teams recovered Shukla’s body from the canal near Mohammadpur Jhal. Officials had earlier stopped the canal’s water flow twice to aid the search. On Monday, they once again halted the water at a large scale and resumed the operation.

Authorities described the effort as the largest joint search operation ever conducted in Roorkee. Teams from SDRF, NDRF, the Army, water police, local police and the disaster management department took part in the operation.

Personnel from the Bengal Engineering Group joined the mission, and authorities specially called in around 20 professional divers. Nearly 100 team members combed the canal stretch from Valmiki Ghat to Asafnagar Jhal using modern techniques. Experienced divers carried out underwater searches across the entire stretch.

After continuous efforts and extensive operations, teams finally recovered the body on the fifth day. Authorities have initiated further legal formalities and sent the body for post-mortem examination.