Indian Official Fined for Draining Reservoir to Find Lost Phone

An Indian government food inspector, Rajesh Vishwas, has been fined 10,000 rupees ($640) and suspended from his job after he drained a reservoir to recover his $1,200 Samsung phone that he had dropped in it. Vishwas paid for a diesel pump to be brought over and claimed he had verbal permission from another official to drain "some water into a nearby canal" which could be beneficial to nearby "farmers who would have more water." The state irrigation department deemed his actions "illegal" and "punishable under Chhattisgarh's Irrigation Act."