Indian Army’s captain of desert warfare specialised unit feared drowned: Police

Captain Ankit Gupta of 10 Para (SF) jumped into the Kalyana lake from a helicopter as part of a training exercise, but could not come up

A captain of Army’s 10 Para (Special Forces) was feared drowned in a lake here on Thursday during a training exercise to rescue people trapped in water bodies, said police.

Captain Ankit Gupta of 10 Para (SF), the Army’s specialised unit for desert warfare, jumped into the Kalyana lake from a helicopter as part of the training exercise, but could not come up with other trainees, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar police station’s SHO Jai Kishan Soni said.

The SHO said the Para 10 (SF) had been conducting the training exercise at the Kalyana Lake on outskirts of Jodhpur on Thursday afternoon.

As the captain did not show up after jumping into the lake, a rescue operation involving policemen, SDRF personnel and divers was launched promptly but his body could not be located till late in the evening, said the SHO.

As a part of the exercise, some jawans had jumped into the lake from a helicopter to hone their skills in saving a drowning person. They were supposed to hold the drowning person and rescue him safely back to the helicopter, he said.

The para 10 SF personnel initially tried to locate Capt Gupta on their own, but when they failed to do it, they informed their seniors, who rushed to lake and a search operation involving experts was launched, said the SHO.

On getting the information, the police also rushed to the spot and roped in SDRF, the civil defence team and some private divers to search the drowned officer.

According to some sources, Captain Gupta had come out and had been holding the hands of the rescuers during exercise but slipped and fell back into the water.