Body count at Delhi’s Haiderpur water plant at four-year high

At least 79 human bodies have been found near the water treatment plant between 2022 and 2024.

Days after two teenagers were arrested for allegedly drugging, tying up and killing an 18-year-old before dumping his body at the Haiderpur Water Treatment Plant (WTP), Delhi Police on Friday said a total of 35 bodies have been recovered from the facility so far this year, the highest count in the last four years.

The point where the bodies and waste end up at thw WTP. (HT Archive)

Police said that around two to three bodies are recovered every month.

Senior officers said bodies frequently reach Haiderpur through the Munak Canal, which carries raw water into Delhi from Haryana. “There are no filtration nets along most stretches of the canal before it reaches Delhi. As a result, bodies from Haryana and several parts of Delhi are often swept into the Haiderpur plant, where they get trapped in the filtration system,” an officer said.

The Munak Canal is a 102-kilometre-long aqueduct that carries water Yamuna water from Haryana’s Karnal, travels south via the Khubru and Mandora barrages, and terminates at the Haiderpur WTP.

Police said that as bodies from Haryana take multiple days to reach the Haiderpur WTP, nearly all of them decompose beyond identification and most of them remain unidentified and unclaimed. As per the data available with HT, of the 35 bodies recovered in 2025, 20 have been identified, while 15 remain unidentified, police said, adding that the deaths include cases of natural causes, drowning, suicide and murder.

Police on Sunday said they have asked Haiderpur WTP authorities to increase surveillance and deploy additional guards, noting that significant manpower is routinely diverted to fishing out bodies, trying to identify the deceased and conducting inquiries into the cause of death.

The most recent murder case was reported on Wednesday, when two men were held for allegedly killing their teenage friend for talking to the cousin (sister) of one of the accused. Police said a PCR call was received on November 22 reporting a body floating in the Munak Canal near the Haiderpur Water Treatment Plant. When recovered, the victim’s hands and feet were tied with shoelaces, a handkerchief was wrapped around his neck, and he had sustained three sharp injuries to the head. Police said the accused Ashish, 23, and Vishal, 23, were arrested this week.

In the first week of December, police said they found another body. Police said their enquiry revealed the deceased, an unidentified homeless man, had died due to some ailment, but they were unsure how he ended up in the Munak Canal.

According to information shared by the police, at least 79 human bodies have been found near the water treatment plant between 2022 and 2024. Senior officials in the area said establishing the circumstances under which their bodies reached the WTP, identification and the disposal of their bodies are the key challenges for personnel of the KN Katju Marg police station.

Data from the water plant

Deputy commissioner of police (Rohini) Rajiv Ranjan said dedicated staff are working towards fishing out bodies on time, identifying them, and registering cases. “We have data of 35 bodies till now,” he said.

As reported earlier by HT, the Haiderpur WTP has long been a grim endpoint for missing persons from Delhi and Haryana.

In the case of the November 22 death, 18-year-old Ankit was reported missing since November 18. Investigators said that while the murder took place the same day, the body reached the plant and was found only on November 22. It took another six days for the investigators to identify the body as the body had been in the water for “too long” and was decomposing.

The officer cited above said, “It’s not easy to get identity of deceased in murder cases and suicide cases. In many murder cases, accused tie limbs with use heavy objects to tie the body so it doesn’t float on water. Sometimes, bodies are decaying due to too much water. Also, nobody has any document or knows the route taken by the body since water can flow from anywhere.”

Police said they have also written to authorities in Haryana to install nets or filtration units so that bodies from Harayana side don’t flow to the Haiderpur plant.

Besides human bodies, the canals are also hubs for throwing animal carcasses, garbage, and waste materials generated in religious events, such as pujas and fire rituals (hawans), by people living in northwest and outer Delhi.

All such items flow with the water and eventually, reach the Haiderpur WTP, where three sets of filtration nets are installed to ensure they are removed well before the raw water reaches the filtration machines.