Human skeleton found in damaged car in Delhi canal; body of man missing four years ago suspected

PTI, Jul 14, 2024, 10:22 AM IST

New Delhi: Delhi Police has recovered a damaged car with a human skeleton in it after the water decreased from the Munak Canal on Friday, officials said on Saturday.

The matter came to the fore when a sub-branch of Munak Canal, which supplies water from Haryana to Delhi, breached and the water level deceased, they said.

The officials said that a damaged car could be visible on Thursday and Friday midnight.

The car was recovered on a stretch of the canal falling under the jurisdiction of Samai Pur Badali area, a police officer said.

The skeleton is suspected to be belonging to a man identified as Vinod, who was missing from Budh Vihar in Vijay Vihar since September 2020.

Vinod was a taxi driver by profession and the Swift Dzire car in which the skeleton was recovered was registered under his name, police said.

Vinod’s son Ravi, who was called for the identification, identified the car and suspected that the body was of his father.

Ravi told PTI that he last conversed with his father on the night of September 30, 2020.

“In the call, he told us that he was going to drop a passenger in Dwarka and after that he would return home. But later his mobile phone went unreachable,” he said.

Ravi said that they approached the local police station in Vijay Vihar and lodged a missing complaint but the police could not trace him.

He said that he received a call on Friday morning following which the police took them to the spot.

The car belongs to us which my father bought in 2019 but I still cant believe that it was my father’s body, Ravi said.

He said the police has given the skeleton to them after conducting the post-mortem examination and added they will conduct the DNA test to ascertain it was my father.

“We have conducted the last rites after the post-mortem examination today. But I still hope that my father is still alive,” he said.

He said that it may be some one else’s body, though they conducted its last rites.

When contacted, a senior police officer said on the basis of circumstantial evidences it is suspected to be the body of Vinod.

“But we are not ruling out any kind of possibility in the matter. Further investigations are underway,” the officer said.

The police said that they have preserved a sample from the body for the DNA test.