The body of a worker was recovered and two more trucks were pulled out from the Ganga on Wednesday at Manikchak Ghat in Malda, where eight trucks and several workers tumbled from a large steamer into the river in a freak accident on Monday evening.

The trucks and workers had come from Jharkhand via the waterway.

A hydraulic crane was brought from Farakka Barrage Authority on Wednesday to speed up the recovery and rescue process, because till Tuesday only one truck had been retrieved.

Around 10am, the second truck was lifted from the river, and around 6pm, up came the third.
The lifeless body of Saidul Haque, 20, the helper, was found in the cabin of the truck that was retrieved at 10am.

Masrul Sheikh, Saidul’s father who was anxiously waiting at the spot, identified the youth. Saidul, sources said, was from Udaya area under Barharwa police station in Sahebganj district of Jharkhand. He could not get out of the closed cabin of the truck that suddenly fell into the Ganga on Monday.

Trinamul leaders console the father of the youth whose body was found in the Ganga, at Manikchak in Malda on Wednesday

Goutam Choudhury, officer-in-charge of Manikchak police station, said that the five more trucks were still there in the river.

Two men are yet to be traced, he said.

On Tuesday, it was known that 14 men — helpers and workers — had managed to swim to the banks or had been rescued by the police and the disaster management teams, and three men were traceless. With Saidul’s body recovered, search is on for the two missing men.