‘He went in, trying to save her’: Rahul Arunoday Banerjee's final moments at Talsari Beach recounted by locals

New details have been emerging related to Bengali actor Rahul Arunoday Banerjee’s drowning case. The actor died at Talsari Beach on March 29 due to accidental drowning. Now reports claim that Rahul died while trying to save a co-star.

Rahul drowned while trying to save his co-star

According to a report in the Telegraph, Rahul’s female co-star had slipped and fallen into a depression on the uneven Talsari beach. The pair was shooting in ‘knee-deep water’, recounted eyewitnesses.

Rahul’s postmortem has revealed that his lungs swelled up to double their size, due to large quantity of sand and saline water, police said on Monday.

“Rahulji was still standing when Madam (the co-star) slipped and fell. She was wearing a sari and was trapped in the water. He went in, trying to save her,” said Tapan Gangai, a local boatman, to The Telegraph.

Tapan had witnessed the incident from a distance while returning to the Talsari beach in Odisha from the “island of red crabs”.

'He was gasping for air'

Eyewitnesses also claimed that Rahul was brought out of the water sometime later. Locals placed him in a prone position to flush out water.

“He threw up some water. He was alive. He was groaning in pain. He was gasping for air. Then the crew (shooting the TV serial Rahul was acting in) took over,” said another eyewitness.

The local police said Rahul and his co-star were shooting on a speedboat in the sea when strong waves, triggered by high tide, caused both to fall into the water. While the co-actor was quickly rescued by crew members, it took an hour to bring Rahul out of the water, the police had said.

The 43-year-old actor, writer and podcast host was rushed to the Digha State General Hospital, 11km from Talsari Beach, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.

According to Tapan, the crew were at the beach since morning, shooting. “Towards evening, I saw them in knee-deep water. It looked like a dance. Then, madam fell.”

Boatman reached out to save the two

Locals state that a boatman reached out almost immediately to save the two. The actress was rescued immediately; however, Rahul could not be traced for a considerable amount of time.

Balasore police, who have jurisdiction over the area, said the production team had neither sought permission from Odisha police for the shoot, nor approached the local Talsari police station for the “precautionary steps that are generally taken during such shoots”.

The police said some boatmen and at least one of the crew members had been instrumental in fishing Rahul out of the water.

On Monday, Rahul’s body was brought from Tamluk to his home at Bijoygarh in South Kolkata, where his family, friends and thousands of others paid their last respects. The body was taken to the Keoratala crematorium on Monday evening for the last rites.

The case is being probed jointly by Odisha and Bengal police.