Telangana

Body of NTV journalist Zameer who was washed away in floodwaters found

Zameer was travelling back from reporting on a rescue operation amid the floods in Jagtial district when he was washed away while trying to cross a flooded road.

Written by : TNM Staff

Three days after journalist Zameer went missing while covering the Telangana floods, his body was found on the morning of Friday, July 15. The car in which he had been travelling was also retrieved, close to the place where it had been washed away. On July 12, Zameer, a reporter working with the Telugu news channel NTV, had gone to Bornapalli village in Raikal mandal of Jagtial district to report on nine farm labourers who were trapped in the Godavari floods. Zameer and another person named Syed Riyaz Ali were returning to Jagtial from Bornapalli, when the Swift Dzire car they were in was washed away by the floodwaters near Ramojipet village. Local residents managed to pull Syed to safety, but Zameer was washed away. 

The search for Zameer’s body ended on Friday morning when it was found on the same road between Ramojipet and Bhupathipur where the car had been washed away. According to reports, Jagtial MLA Sanjay Kumar instructed doctors to conduct a post-mortem at the site of the accident. He also reportedly instructed the police department to move the body to Jagtial after the post-mortem was completed. Announcing support for Zameer’s family, TRS MLC and daughter of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Kalvakuntla Kavitha, wrote on Twitter, “The death of Zameer, a journalist from Jagtial who got swept away in the floods while working, is very tragic. We will stand by Zameer's family. While giving priority to reporting, I request media friends to also be vigilant about rains and floods and take due precautions,”

Zameer had gone to Raikal to cover the rescue operation of the nine labourers in Bornapalli who were stranded in the middle of the river flow after the gates of the Sriram Sagar Project (SRSP) reservoir on the Godavari river were lifted. The nine people had sent out an SOS selfie video to their families. They were eventually rescued by the NDRF (National Disaster Response Force). 

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