Rajesh Vishwas, a member of the Indian government, was suspended after he gave an order to empty a water reservoir in order to retrieve his phone, BBC reported on Saturday.
The food inspector was taking a photo when his phone, which was valued at roughly $1,200, fell into the Kherkatta Dam in Chhattisgarh.
Millions of gallons of water had to be pumped out of the dam. The process of draining the dam took three days.
Vishwas has said in a video statement that after local divers failed to find it, he paid for a diesel pump to be brought in.
The process was halted after an official from the water resource department arrived following a complaint.
“He has been suspended until an inquiry. Water is an essential resource and it cannot be wasted like this,” Kanker district official Priyanka Shukla told an Indian newspaper.
However, Vishwas insisted that he had not abused his authority and that the water had been drained because it was “
