Mutilated body found on Churdhar peak, believed to be of missing Haryana youth
The body was found on Monday evening by a group of three local volunteers from the Nohradhar area near Churdhar peak and is suspected to be of Akshay Sahani, a 28-year-old Haryana resident who went missing while trekking at the site on February 26. No other trekker has been reported missing in the recent days, officials said.
A mutilated body of a man was found in a snow-covered gorge along the Churdhar Trek in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh, officials said on Tuesday.
The body was found on Monday evening by a group of three local volunteers from the Nohradhar area near Churdhar peak and is suspected to be of Akshay Sahani, a 28-year-old Haryana resident who went missing while trekking at the site on February 26. No other trekker has been reported missing in the recent days, officials said.
“We received information about a severely mutilated body found at Churdhar by three local men. We will officially identify him after a thorough investigation. Due to heavy snow, the body could not be retrieved yesterday, but a joint team is working today to transport it to Nohradhar,” Sangrah sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Sunil Kumar Kayath said. “We have informed the parents of the man, and they are on their way to Sangrah to identify the body. Postmortem examination and other tests would also be undertaken,” he said.
Akshay was reported missing during the Shivratri celebrations. His body was found trapped near the famous Shivling at Churdhar, at an elevation of 11,965 feet. Trekking to the Churdhar Peak was prohibited from December 1 to March 31 due to the harsh weather conditions.
The body was discovered by Hansraj, Harish, and Tapendra, the three volunteers who had taken it upon themselves to a search and rescue mission for Akshay.
Earlier, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), police, forest department, and revenue officials had led a search for Akshay. However, severe cold and heavy snowfall forced these teams to suspend their efforts.
On March 6, a specialised team from the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports, Manali, also attempted a rescue operation but was similarly thwarted. Following this, on March 10, celebrated mountaineer Baljeet Kaur and her team joined the search but were unable to locate him.