Ghaziabad: Traffic cop drowns after rescuing woman from Hindon canal

Ghaziabad: A 35-year-old on-duty traffic police constable died on Saturday while trying to save a 25-year-old woman who had jumped into Hindon canal near Vaishali allegedly after a domestic dispute with her in-laws, officers said.

The 25-year-old woman (name withheld) had jumped into the canal near Sector 2/5 culvert in Vaishali around 12.30pm, and was struggling to move out. On noticing her drowning, traffic police constable Ankit Tomar, along with his colleague sub-inspector Dharmendra Panwar, who were on duty there also plunged to rescue her, they added.

“Tomar moved the woman to safety, and she was pulled out by other police staff and locals. However, he himself drowned. The water in the canal was shallow. But it was probably due to thick silt that Ankit could not move out. After a lot of efforts, he was fished out later by fire officials from the canal and rushed to a hospital, where he was declared dead,” said assistant commissioner of police (Indirapuram circle) Abhishek Srivastava.

The incident occurred under the jurisdiction of the Kaushambi police station area.

Officers said that Ankit had joined the police force in 2015 and was originally from Barola Jafrabad in Aligarh district. He was serving for the past two years with the Ghaziabad traffic police.

“We received information around 12.30pm by onlookers, and it stated that three people were drowning in the canal. Our teams, along with equipment and divers, rushed to the spot and found that the woman and Tomar’s colleague were rescued, but Ankit was missing. It took us about an hour to trace Ankit, and he was caught up in thick muck and silt in the canal. He was taken to the hospital but declared dead by doctors,” said Rahul Pal, chief fire officer.