Chennai: Nine days after the accident, rescuers recovered the body of Vetri Duraisamy, son of former Chennai mayor Saidai Duraisamy, from the Sutlej river in Himachal Pradesh. On February 4, the car carrying Vetri Duraisamy plunged into the river in Kinnaur district while he was travelling from Shimla to Spiti.

The director of 'Endraavathu Oru Naal', a Tamil film, Vetri had gone missing since the tragedy struck. The rescuers had managed to rescue Vetri's co-passenger, Gopinath and he is currently  undergoing treatment. Whereas the car driver, identified as Tenzin, was found dead.

In the hope to get the whereabouts of his son, the former Chennai mayor had offered a reward of Rs 1 crore for information related to Vetri. During the search operation, traces of human brain matter was found near the riverside, which were collected for testing and DNA profiling to determine whether they belonged to Vetri.

Multiple teams, including Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) Uttarakhand, and district police officials, were engaged in the search operations.

On Monday, a team of divers from the Mahin Nag Association located Vetri's body around 3km from the accident site.

Thereafter his body was transferred to Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (IGCMH) in Shimla for postmortem. His body was finally handed over to the family.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin expressed his condolences to Saidai Duraisamy, acknowledging the tragedy that no father should ever have to endure.