To bring out the body, they had to amputate the leg of Kumar as it had got stuck inside a suction pipe.

On Sunday, Kumar, an employee of Mumbai-based Grafftech Marine and Engineering, went inside the submerged chamber of Purulia Power Projects reservoir to locate and repair a leak that was first noticed in March. The Power Project authority had assigned the job to the company for which it had sent a team from Visakhapatnam to Purulia.

Kumar, who was the supervisor of a team of divers, went inside the water-filled chamber. He went 120 feet deep in the chamber where his right feet got stuck inside a pipe. Since Sunday afternoon, Kumar remained stuck there. All attempts to extricate the right foot of Kumar remained unsuccessful till late Tuesday night. His intake of oxygen, which was given to him through a pipe, dropped this morning, said officials involved in the rescue operations for over 48 hours.

A team of specialised divers from Barrackpore were asked to come to Purulia on Monday but they took nearly 24 hours to reach after they got reportedly stuck in the road blockade of the SFI on Durgapur Expressway.

After the team of divers failed to recover Kumar, the Grafftech Marine and Engineering sent a team of divers from Hyderabad which started its rescue operation today at around 11.30 am.

“We tried a lot to drag out the right leg of Kumar from the pipe. Since the leg was trapped in a suction pipe, we could not take the leg out. So we had to amputate his right leg above his knees. We had the orders of amputating the leg, if necessary,” said Santosh Bhuniya who was involved in the rescue operation.

“Mahesh remained alive for 33 hours. He could have been saved had the state officials taken some urgent steps. No help reached Mahesh Kumar for 33 hours,” said an official of the Hyderabad firm.

However, Surajit Dutta, project manager of the state government’s power project, said: “Even though we tried to save him, our efforts went in vain. The family of the victim will receive compensation. The amount has not been fixed yet.”