Sneha Debnath, a 19-year-old Tripura native who had been reported missing in Delhi for six days, has been found dead, police said on Sunday.
Sneha, who was a 2nd year B.Sc Maths student of Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College (Delhi University), lived with her family in Delhi’s Paryavaran Complex, from where she went missing on July 7.
On Sunday, Sneha’s dead body was found from the Yamuna river, near the Geeta Colony area in east Delhi. A note provided by her family indicated her intention to jump from Signature Bridge, the city landmark where her cab driver said he dropped her.
However, due to poor CCTV coverage, the police have not been able to trace Sneha’s activity since she got out of the cab.
According to the missing complaint lodged by Sneha’s elder sister Bipasha Debnath, the former told her mother, Pinki Debnath on July 7 that she was going to drop her friend Pitunua at Sarai Rohilla Railway Station in central Delhi.
Bipasha further said that Sneha boarded a hired cab, whose driver was identified as Subhe Chandra around 5.15 in the morning.
“Sneha’s phone was off when we tried calling her at around 8.45 am. When I called her friend Pitunia, she told me that she did not meet Sneha. I then took the cab driver’s number from Pitunia and called him, who said that he dropped Sneha at Signature Bridge in Wazirabad,” the complaint read further.
Bipasha further maintained that when the family followed the clues provided by the cab driver, they did not find a sign of Sneha. “We thought someone must have kidnapped her from the spot”.
Following her disappearance, the Delhi police, along with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), launched a massive search operation within a seven-kilometre radius. However, their search operation bore no immediate results.
Investigation revealed that her last location was at Signature Bridge, where some eyewitnesses stated that they saw a girl standing on the bridge and later went missing.
A joint search with the NDRF and local police was then conducted from Nigam Bodh Ghat to Noida.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha took note of the situation and directed the police to take immediate action to locate Sneha.
“The report of Miss Sneha Debnath, a resident of Sabroom, who has reportedly gone missing in New Delhi, has come to the notice of the Chief Minister’s Office. Following this, necessary instructions have been promptly issued to the police to take immediate and appropriate action,” Saha had tweeted.
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