Missing techie found dead in forest

Twenty-three-year-old Satwik Shastri, senior business analyst with Mu Sigma company, was found dead under a thick bush in Begihalli Beat in Ragihalli forest area, south-east of Bannerghatta National Park on Monday afternoon.

Preliminary investigations at the spot, and Satwik’s mangled body, indicated he was the victim of a fatal attack by an elephant, understood to be part of a 20-strong herd of pachyderms which usually traverses that spot in the middle of the elephant corridor.

Satwik was on a trek with his two friends Ashish Shenoy and Anupam Manur. Bannerghatta police have found one of Ashish’s slippers at the spot, which indicated that all the three had been attacked by the elephant, but Ashish and Anupam managed to escape while Satwik was not so lucky.

However conflicting versions by Ashish and Anupam indicated that the two were allegedly trying to hide some facts about the manner in which Satwik had gone missing.

The youth’s body was found 42 hours and 45 minutes after he went missing on Saturday evening at about 7pm, as per the complaint given by his two fellow-trekkers-cum-friends, Ashish Shenoy and Anupam Manur. Forest and police officials said the body was located at 1.25 pm on Monday, and a herd of elephants – probably the same from which one had attacked Satwik – was found close by.