An Indian official has been suspended from his job after he drained an entire reservoir to find the phone he lost after taking a selfie.
Rajesh Vishwas, 32, was picnicking with friends last week when he dropped his Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra into the Paralkot reservoir in Chhattisgarh State, India, while taking a selfie, The Times of India newspaper reported.
Bereft at the loss of his brand new £970 device, food inspector Rajesh asked villagers he knew to dive into the reservoir to try to fish it out.
But after multiple failed attempts over two days, he decided to rent a diesel pump and drained the whole dam, which was around enough water irrigate 1,500 acres of farmland.
The phone was retrieved but was too waterlogged to work.
Rajesh claimed it contained sensitive government data and needed retrieving, but he has been lambasted for misusing his position of power.
He said he had verbal permission from an official to drain "some water into a nearby canal", adding that the official said it "would in fact benefit the farmers who would have more water".
Rajesh is also facing a huge backlash for getting rid of water which is a hugely precious commodity in the drought-prone country.
The state's opposition BJP party's national vice-president tweeted: "When people are depending upon tankers for water facility in scorching summers, the officer has drained 41 lakh litres which could have been used for irrigation purpose for 1,500 acres of land."
"He has been suspended until an inquiry. Water is an essential resource and it cannot be wasted like this," Priyanka Shukla, a Kanker district official, told the National newspaper.
An official from the district of Kanker, in Chhatisgarh, told the Times of India that he did not have official permission to drain the dam.
The official was quoted as saying: "Vishwas has been suspended with immediate effect for misusing his position by draining lakhs of litres of water from the waterbody in summer's heat, to find his mobile phone, which is not acceptable. He pumped out water without seeking formal permission."
Rajesh told the Indian Express that news reports of his phone-retrieval operation had been greatly exaggerated and that the reservoir was not used for irrigation.
