Duo went to collect fishing net, found body floating

Ritesh D’Souza, 35, and Pranesh are the two fishermen who recovered the body of Siddhartha, found floating in water about five km from the Netravathy bridge.

The media focused attention on them outside the Wenlock Hospital mortuary on Wednesday.

D’Souza and Pranesh were summoned to the mortuary to complete the formalities. For the past 20 years, they have been fishing out bodies of people committing suicide by jumping into the Netravathi river.

D’Souza said himself, Pranesh and Sarathi had set out in their boat on Wednesday morning to collect the fishing net which was cast the previous evening. They noticed a body floating on the river and realised that it was to Siddhartha’s, as they had participated in the search operations the previous day.

They dragged the body to the river bank near Hoige Bazaar and informed the police control room. The police and personnel of the National Disaster Response Force shifted the body to the mortuary.

The fishermen said the body was found without the T-shirt. They said they are not aware about any cash reward announced for them.