A 23-year-old student of Amity University who was allegedly out to celebrate the end of examinations with three friends drowned in a waterlogged construction pit close to the university’s campus in Noida on Wednesday afternoon.
The tragedy occurred in Sector 94 off the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, less than three months after a software professional drowned in his car that plunged into a similar construction pit filled with drain water in Sector 150 at the other end of the same expressway.
Amity University identified the deceased student as Harshit Bhatt. Police said the other three students who had entered the water to try to save Harshit were pulled out safely.
“Harshit Bhatt was a final year student of Amity School of Physical Education. Exams are going on…and he left the campus today after writing his exam in the afternoon. We were informed by the police about his death,” Savita Dubey, Vice President, Communications at the university, said in a statement.
“We are fully cooperating with the police. We express our deepest condolences to the bereaved family members,” the university said.
Police said the incident took place around 3.15 pm, when the students had gathered by the pit, resembling a small lake. Noida DCP Saad Miya Khan said police rushed to the spot after the Sector 126 police station received information about a possible drowning.
Teams from the NDRF (National Disaster Response Force), SDRF (State Disaster Response Force), and Fire department also reached the spot. “While three of the students were rescued, one drowned,” Khan said.
“The body has been sent for a post mortem examination. We are trying to ascertain what exactly happened and what led to the drowning,” he said. The nature and depth of the pit were also being investigated, police officers said.
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In January, 27-year-old Yuvraj Mehta’s car had fallen in a construction pit in Sector 150 while he was on way home in dense fog. He drowned after screaming for help for a full two hours, as police and fire services personnel tried in vain to rescue him without specialised equipment.
A 35-year-old man who gave his name as Saroj Kashyap told The Indian Express on Wednesday evening that it appeared the four students had entered the partially fenced-off construction site after parking their motorcycles near Supertech’s Supernova project.
At some point, one of the students appeared to have entered the water, Kashyap said.
“Around 3.30 or 3.45, one of the boys came running, crying and asking for help,” Kashyap, who said he drives an ambulance, said. He said he entered the water along with an e-rickshaw driver named Harsh, who was also present there, but they could not find Harshit.
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According to Kashyap, the police arrived in about 10 minutes, after which he went into the water again, this time with a rope tied to his waist.
“I found him deep inside the pit. His leg was entangled in long grass, which I removed, and his hand was stuck between some iron bars. I flipped him over and pulled him to the surface,” Kashyap said.
“It took around an hour and a half to pull him out, since the water is deep and filled with grasses and algae,” he said.
Another man, a ragpicker named Chaman Singh (40) said the pit has been lying abandoned for close to a decade. He too recalled the three students running up, shouting “doob gaya, doob gaya”.
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He told The Indian Express that he had gone into the water as well, but had not found Harshit. “The water is very deep. Some animals have drowned here earlier,” he said.
Harsh, the 25-year-old e-rickshaw driver, said the clothes of the boys who had run up were wet, and he had asked them how that had happened. “They said someone had drowned. So I went down to the water and saw two other people there. I took off my clothes and waded in, but I could not find him. I was out of my depth in the water,” he said.
