Kargal (Sagara taluk): Renowned mountaineer Jyothiraj (Kothiraj) has gone missing from Tuesday after he went in search of a young man from Siddapur (Chithradurga) who was missing from the top of Jog waterfall.

Jyothiraj search team said that the brave mountaineer had descended to the waterfall on Tuesday noon using the steps near Mysore Bungalow to support the ongoing search in the surroundings. However, Jyothiraj went missing near a cave-like place, between Raja and Roarer waterfalls, said one of the members of the team.

“As it was night and foggy, we decided to come up. Jyothiraj is courageous and he may come up in the morning,” one of the team members said. However, as Jyothraj was missing, police started search operation with powerful torches to the crevice area of the waterfall, but all went in vain.

A youth named Manjunath had gone missing on Sunday from top of the waterfall and his parents had brought Jyothiraj and team to Jog from Chitradurga on February 26.

Jyoti Raj, also known as Kothiraj or Monkey King from Chithradurga became specifically famous for scaling the Chithraduga fort without any safety harness or climbing gears. He is the only person to have scaled Karnataka’s highest waterfall, the 830-foot Jog fall, climbing in the opposite direction to that of the flow of the water. The news of him going missing from the very same fall over which he once planted victory flag is creating a sense of fear among his fans.