4-year-old girl, uncle drown in pond in Noida Sector 121

According to the police, the site of the accident was a pond which was used by the locals to bathe and swim sometimes.

A four-year-old girl and her 22-year-old uncle drowned in a pond near an erstwhile dumping ground in Sector 121 on Tuesday morning. The bodies were recovered later in the day.

NDRF personnel search for the body of 22-year-old Ankur Yadav in a pond in Noida on Tuesday, Aug 6, 2019. (Sunil Ghosh / HT Photo)

The deceased were identified as Nancy and Ankur Yadav, both residents of Garhi Chaukhandi village. According to the police, the site of the accident was a pond which was used by the locals to bathe and swim sometimes. The area had initially been proposed by the Noida authority as Noida’s primary landfill site, which after protests by the locals had been shifted elsewhere.

“Some children were playing nearby, who say they saw what happened. However, their account is not very clear. According to them, the victims had gone to the place to have a bath but fell into the pond and drowned,” Devendra Singh, station house officer, Phase 3 police station, said.

Unconfirmed sources also said that it was the girl who first fell in and her uncle jumped in to save her. However, the police are not sure about the sequence of events.

According to the police, divers from the eighth battalion of the NDRF reached the spot around 1pm. After an operation that lasted almost six hours, Ankur’s body was recovered, they said.

“The pond is almost one kilometre in length and nearly 50 feet in breadth. The depth of the pond varies at various places. At some points it is seven to ten feet deep, at other points it is as deep as 20 feet. Also, it has been dug up at some points by earthmovers, creating smaller ditches, which caused problems during the search operation,” Mohammad Arshad, inspector, NDRF, said.

Both the bodies have been sent for an autopsy, after which they will be handed over to the family. The police said so far no complaint has been filed in the matter.