Missing farmer may not have entered drain: SDRF

AURANGABAD: After four days of search operations, the members of municipal fire brigade and State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF) could not locate 27-year-old Rameshwar Dambe, the farmer who went missing from the Brijwadi Shivar drainage chamber on Monday.


Villagers said that Dambe had entered the drainage to pump up water along with six other farmers who were pulled out later, out of which three died and one is under treatment at a private hospital, reportedly critical.

The villagers had told the fire brigade team that seven people had entered the chamber. Subsequently, the fire brigade of the AMC had initiated the search operations.

On Tuesday, a team of SDRF was called in from Dhule to aid the operation. The 30-member team continue to search for Dambe in the drain line, which ends at sewage treatment plant in Jhalta. The team returned to Dhule on Thursday.

SDRF inspector Sanjay Salunke told TOI that the farmer probably didn’t enter the chamber. “None of the villagers are certain if they saw Dambe going inside or not. We used a 10-horsepower blower to check for any obstacle in the pipe, but couldn’t find anything,” Salunke said.

A missing persons report has been filed at the Chikalthana police station.