A search operation for senior Uttar Pradesh bureaucrat Aditya Vardhan Singh continued Monday, two days after he was swept away by strong currents in the Ganga at the Nanamau Ghat in Bilhaur town of the Kanpur Nagar district.
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According to police, Singh, a deputy director in the health department of Uttar Pradesh, moved towards deeper waters to get a photo clicked by his friends and slipped in the process.
“Our preliminary investigation has revealed that he wanted to be photographed while offering ‘arghya’ to the sun and crossed the ‘warning’ mark. Though he knew how to swim, he got trapped in a strong current,” The Times of India (TOI) quoted Rajesh Kumar Singh, DCP (West), as saying.
Bilhaur ACP Ajay Kumar Trivedi said that the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), flood unit, police, and private divers, were searching for the missing officer.
“We resumed the search Sunday morning. However, we have not been successful in locating Aditya Vardhan Singh,” he stated.
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The friends of the bureaucrat, 45, who was from Lucknow and posted in Varanasi, claimed that private divers at the ‘ghat’ demanded ₹10,000 to save him and refused to go in without being paid first.
{{/usCountry}}The friends of the bureaucrat, 45, who was from Lucknow and posted in Varanasi, claimed that private divers at the ‘ghat’ demanded ₹10,000 to save him and refused to go in without being paid first.
{{/usCountry}}“When we informed that we didn't have cash, they demanded online payment. By the time they went in after we transferred the money, Aditya had already been swept away,” the friends alleged.
Reacting to the friends' charge, Trivedi, the Bilhaur ACP, said that the divers wanted money to purchase fuel for their steamer.
“If there is any truth in the allegations, we will take legal action against the divers,” the senior police officer added.