Illegal sand mining claims techie’s life

Bangalore Mirror

Bangalore, 30 June 2011: Wipro’s Gururaj Sedambi was bathing in Tunga when the river bed gave way. He sank like a stone but shoved a kid out of harm’s way.

 

Wipro techie Gururaj Sedambi’s promotion letter came the day his body was found after being washed up from the Tunga river. Sedambi lost his life when a sandy bed caved in while he was bathing in the river on Saturday morning, near the Mahishi Mutt at Teerthahalli, Shimoga. His body was found among the bushes on Tuesday afternoon, 3 km from the spot where he drowned.

Sedambi was a regular visitor to the mutt on the banks of the Tunga. He had gone there with his guru and other community friends to attend an upanyasa. The group left Bangalore on Friday night, and reached the mutt early on Saturday.

 

To start the day with a pooja, Sedambi and 12 of his companions went down to the river for a bath. Sedambi went in first as he had to attend the preaching. Suddenly he became aware that the sandy river bed was giving way under his feet.

                           

Ramakrishna Sedambi with a wedding photo of his deceased brother

Close to Sedambi in the river was a five-year-old kid. Realising the danger, Sedambi shoved the boy back towards his other companions who were behind him. But before he could yell out a warning, the bed collapsed, and Sedambi was gone, forever.

Not once did he resurface, not even to flail his hands or gasp for air, his companions said.

“Everything happened in a moment,” Ramakrishna, Sedambi’s brother, told Bangalore Mirror. “We didn’t know what was actually happening. He was standing one moment and was gone the next. Experts say the river bed has been weakened by sand mining."

Heavy rains made search operations difficult even though Wipro had sent swimmers and some of its staff to the spot where they stayed till the body was found.

‘A brilliant worker’

The news of Sedambi’s death left his colleagues at the Wipro office, where he had worked for six years, speechless. His bosses said he was a brilliant worker. “He had gone to the mutt many times, but this time it was ill-fated. Based on his performance, he got a promotion as senior project manager. But the letter came the day his body was found,” Narasingha Rao, general manager, Chief Technology Office, Wipro.

Sedambi was well-liked in the campus. “We used to see him every day and we are really proud of him. He was a brilliant employee. He used to preach about our culture and the Vedas, and we listened to him during lunch time. We would miss him,”said Arun Kumar, a colleague.

Sedambi left behind his parents, wife and a three-year-old kid. The cremation was held at Chamarajpet on Wednesday evening.