After 71 day-search for Arjun in landslide-hit K’taka’s Shiroor, Kerala family finally gets closure

Arjun had left the home in the second week of July driving a truck with a load of wooden logs for delivery in Karnataka. On July 16, he went missing after a landslide hit the Shiroor area in Karnataka along the Kochi-Panavel national highway.

Kozhikode: For the nondescript little town, Kannadickal, in Kerala’s Kozhikode district, Saturday was not to be the usual day as hundreds of people silently marched to a house where a family had been waiting for 71 days to learn about their member, 30-year-old truck driver Arjun.

Arjun had left the home in the second week of July driving a truck with a load of wooden logs for delivery in Karnataka. On July 16, he went missing after a landslide hit the Shiroor area in Karnataka along the Kochi-Panavel national highway.

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Following a massive search, on Thursday the truck was lifted from the Gangavali River in Shiroor and the body of Arjun was in the cabin of the truck.

Karwar MLA Sathish Krishna Sail, who was for many days spotted in the area when the search operations were going on, was among the first ones to spot a dead body inside the cabin of the truck which later turned out to be of Arjun.

After retrieving the body, it was then taken to his native place in Kerala in an ambulance.

And on Saturday, with news spreading far and wide thousands of people lined up the roads to bid Arjun farewell.

The inconsolable family held the last rites of Arjun in the compound of the house.

The distraught family had earlier contacted Kozhikode MP, Congress leader M.K. Raghavan when they could not get any information on Arjun. Raghvan in turn contacted his party leaders in Karnataka.

“It could well be a first of its kind of an operation in the history of the country when a rescue operation of 71 days took place. We have to give full credit to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for the way he took action to see that the operation to retrieve the dead is successful and it did,” said Raghavan, who was at Arjun’s house to pay his last respects.

Among those who accompanied the hearse that carried Arjun’s mortal remains, was MLA Sail, who has become a local hero in a place where he is coming for the first time. He was greeted by people and many were seen patting his back for his perseverance in retrieving the truck.

He handed over a cheque for Rs five lakh to Arjun’s family from the Karnataka government.

The Kerala government also played their role and gave a job to Arjun’s wife.

With news spreading far and wide, it was a sea of humanity including thousands of people eagerly waiting to have one last glimpse of Arjun’s body, neatly packed and decked with flowers.

It was with great difficulty and after a long time, the body was able to be taken to his house from the ambulance.

The last rites of Arjun were held in the compound of Arjun’s house which will be the talk of the town for a long while.