A authorities official in India has been suspended after he ordered a reservoir to be drained to retrieve his cellphone.

It took three days to pump hundreds of thousands of litres of water out of the dam, after Rajesh Vishwas dropped the machine whereas taking a selfie.

By the time it was discovered, the cellphone was too water-logged to work.

Mr Vishwas claimed it contained delicate authorities information and wanted retrieving, however he has been accused of misusing his place.

The meals inspector dropped his Samsung cellphone, value about $1,200 (100,000 rupees), into Kherkatta Dam, within the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, on Sunday.

After native divers failed to seek out it, he paid for a diesel pump to be introduced in, Mr Vishwas mentioned in a video assertion quoted in Indian media.

He mentioned he had verbal permission from an official to empty “some water into a nearby canal”, including that the official mentioned it “would in fact benefit the farmers who would have more water”.

The pump ran for a number of days, emptying out some two million litres (440,000 gallons) of water – reportedly sufficient to irrigate 6 sq km (600 hectares) of farmland.

His mission was stopped when one other official, from the water useful resource division, arrived following a grievance.

“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, instructed The National newspaper.

Mr Vishwas has denied misusing his place, and mentioned that the water he drained was from the overflow part of the dam and “not in usable condition”.

But his actions have drawn criticism from politicians, with the state’s opposition BJP occasion’s nationwide Vice-President tweeting, “When people are depending upon tankers for water facility in in scorching summers, the officer has drained 41 lakh litres which could have been used for irrigation purpose for 1,500 acres of land.”