Bengal magician, Chanchal Lahiri, was inspire by Harry Houdini’s trick to escape from shackles underwater. This trick had given Houdini immense popularity in the 20th century.
On the afternoon of June 16, 2019, Lahiri attempted to replicate the underwater escape act in the Hooghly, in front of horrified spectators. Unfortunately, he did not resurface and is feared to have drowned.
According to eye witnesses, he lowered himself into the Hooghly river, tied in chains from a ferry anchored below the Howrah bridge.
Lahiri, known by his stage name ‘Jadugar Mandrake’, was a 42-year-old Indian magician, who was supposed to free himself and swim back to the shore. But tragically, the magic trick failed him.
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The search operations are still underway but till now neither Lahiri nor his body has been found.
According to the river traffic police, rescue workers have been scouring the fast flowing murky waters since sunday but he is yet to be found.
Syed Waquar Raza of the river traffic police added, ‘We fear he drowned in the water’.
Sources said that people tried to dissuade him from doing the trick, but he said that he wanted to do this trick in order “to revive interest in magic”.
This was not his first time, as in 2013, he had attempted the same trick, but it did not go very well, as people lashed out at him when they thought they saw him escape through a secret door built into a steel cage.
A few years back, Lahiri had also made an unsuccessful attempt to walk on a river.