Mumbai: The Mulund police recovered the body of a 30-year-old forest guard working with the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), Swastik Katkar, from the Tulsi lake near Bhandup on Thursday morning.
According to the police, Katkar and a few of his friends, including two forest guards, were allegedly partying at the lake’s shore at 10 pm on Wednesday and then went for a swim but drowned.
His body, which bore fish-bite marks, was found floating in the lake by a few workers who informed the SGNP authorities and it was fished out at around 10 am on Thursday.
The Mulund police has registered an accidental death report and is treating it as a case of drowning, said DCP (zone 7) Akhilesh Singh. The post-mortem report is awaited. The police took the account on what happened at the lake from those who were with the deceased on Wednesday night, including guards, one Sathe and Salvi, to rule out any foul play, said sources. Katkar was a native of Yavatmal. SGNP officials stated that the forest guards were not from the same range. “The body was sent for conducting inquest panchanama and an autopsy to Rajawadi Hospital,” said Shripad Kale, senior inspector of Mulund police station. The officials are conducting further probe in the incident.
After the incident, there were speculations that Ketkar was attacked by a leopard, following which he slipped into the lake, however forest department denied any confirmation. SGNP officials stated that prima facie, it does not appear as a leopard attack. “There were no scratches or marks by a leopard found on the body. The police is interrogating Ketkar’s friends and other guards as to whether he died in front of them, or if it happened after they left,” said P. B. Bhalekar, divisional forest
officer, SGNP.
