Delhi: Divers, drones searching for body of missing DU student in Yamuna

A 19-year-old Delhi University student was found dead in the Yamuna after being reported missing; family discovered a note suggesting suicide.

The body of a 19-year-old Delhi University student was recovered from the Yamuna near the Geeta Colony flyover in east Delhi. The woman was reported missing on July 7. Police had initially believed that the woman had been kidnapped, until her family found a note in her bedroom suggesting that she intended to take her own life by jumping off Signature Bridge, officers said. Boats, divers, and drones were deployed to search the river from Nigam Bodh Ghat to downstream areas near Noida.

The woman is believed to have died by suicide. (Representational image)

The family, originally from Tripura, lives in an apartment complex in south Delhi. The woman is a second year undergraduate student at a college in south Delhi.

“The woman’s sister approached police on July 7 and said she had been missing since 5pm. The woman had left her house saying she was going to Sarai Rohilla Railway Station to drop a friend. Her mother took note of the phone number of the cab driver who came home to take her to the station,” said deputy commissioner of police (south) Ankit Chauhan.

“Around 8.45pm, when the woman didn’t return home and her phone became switched off, her family called the friend who she had said she was going to drop at the railway station. But the friend said the woman didn’t meet her. We questioned the cab driver, who told us that he had dropped the woman at Signature Bridge,” he added.

“Technical surveillance corroborated the cab driver’s testimony, placing the woman’s mobile phone location at Signature Bridge shortly after she left home,” said a senior police officer.

Police registered a case on charges of kidnapping and began a probe. However,later that day, her family a note in her bedroom suggesting that she intended to take her own life by jumping off Signature Bridge, police said.

Eyewitnesses at Signature Bridge reported seeing a young woman standing on the edge of the bridge. Moments later, she was no longer in sight.

The Delhi Police and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams quickly began searching the Yamuna, using drones to scan inaccessible patches of the river.

Investigators reached out to the woman’s friends who said that she had been under emotional distress for the past few months. On the morning of July 7, she had sent messages via email and WhatsApp that hinted at her mental state, police said. These are now being examined as part of the investigation, police said.

On Saturday, Tripura chief minister Manik Saha had asked the police to take steps to rescue the woman.

“The report of the woman, a resident of Sabroom who has reportedly gone missing in New Delhi, has come to the notice of the chief minister’s office. Necessary instructions have been promptly issued to the police to take immediate and appropriate action,” the CMO said on X.

A Tripura police official, requesting anonymity, said they are in touch with the Delhi Police.

With inputs from Priyanka Deb Barman