Delivery boy drowns in Dhankot Canal

A 24-year-old delivery boy drowned in the Dhankot Canal on Wednesday evening while taking a bath. His body was recovered on Thursday morning after an extensive rescue operation, the police said.

The deceased has been identified as Kharak Singh, a resident of Ashok Vihar Phase-3 and a native of Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh. According to police, Singh, who worked as a delivery boy, had gone to the canal with his nephew. The two reportedly consumed alcohol while sitting by the water. Later, Singh entered the canal to bathe, ventured into deep water, and drowned. His nephew and local passersby immediately alerted the authorities.

Upon receiving information, teams from the fire brigade, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), civil defense, and local police led by Dhankot police chowki in-charge Vinod Kumar launched a rescue operation. Divers searched the canal until around 8pm but were unsuccessful due to darkness.

On Thursday morning, divers again started looking for the body of the youth in the canal. After remaining in water overnight, the body swelled up and came up and was visible to passersby at around 10am. After this the rescue team reached the spot and took out the body and took it to the mortuary for postmortem.

A senior police officer said they handed over the body to kin after the postmortem today and a probe is underway.