NEW DELHI: Haunting images of a 25-year-old man lying dead with his helmet still on, his mud-smeared motorcycle beside him inside a Delhi Jal Board pit, jolted the capital on Friday morning.
But beyond the disturbing visuals, it was the long night of uncertainty and anguish endured by his family that deepened the tragedy. As the young man lay dead in an open pit, his friends spent hours moving from one police station to another, desperately trying to trace him.
The victim’s family alleged that they were kept in the dark for several hours and were informed of his death only the next morning, after spending the entire night searching for him.
“I spoke to him last night when he had reached the District Centre. He was just 15 minutes from home. An hour later, when he didn't reach home, we came to the District Centre. He wasn't picking up our calls. His bike was nowhere to be seen. When we went to the police station to file a complaint, we were told that our complaint would not be registered before 11 am,” the victim’s friend told news agency ANI.
He said police later helped them trace the phone’s last location and asked them to search within a 200-metre radius. “Seven people were searching for him from midnight to 7am, but we could not find him. At 1 am, when we checked the pit, he was not there. We were on this road all the time, but we don't understand how he ended up here after we checked,” he said.
The friend raised serious questions over the police response. “When we went back home at 7am, we received a call from my friend's phone, and the police informed us that he was here in the pit. Why could his phone not be traced by the police at night? We suspect he was killed. What must his parents be going through. We still haven't informed his mother,” he said.
The deceased, who worked at an HDFC Bank call centre in Rohini Sector 10, had left home late at night on his motorcycle. When he failed to return and his phone became unreachable, his family began searching for him and approached multiple police stations across west Delhi.
Relatives claimed they visited nearly a dozen police stations through the night but received no concrete information. At around 7am, police called the family and informed them that his body had been found.
“My friend could have been saved. Police have been deployed, and barricades have been set up around the pit now. Why couldn't they do it earlier?” the friend said.
According to a senior police officer, preliminary investigation suggests the spot was a Delhi Jal Board construction site at Joginder Singh Marg near Green Valley Apartments. The officer said the site was “properly barricaded”, but acknowledged that the area may have lacked adequate warning signage at the time of the incident.
Amid mounting public anger over the incident, Delhi minister Ashish Sood visited the site on Friday and ordered a probe into the circumstances that led to the young man’s death.
“I received news of this unfortunate accident around 8:30–9 am, and I have been here since then. Delhi Jal Board work was in progress here, and I have instructed the Jal Board to investigate it. If anyone is found responsible, they will not be spared. The Jal Board had conducted an audit of all safety protocols and issued circulars. The police are looking into the cause of the accident,” Sood said.
The Aam Aadmi Party, meanwhile, launched a scathing attack on the BJP-led Delhi government, holding it responsible for what it termed a preventable tragedy.
Former AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj said the death exposed systemic negligence despite repeated warnings. “Just another innocent bread-earner. The main road under Delhi Govt’s PWD, and was dug up by DJB. Local RWAs had complained multiple times to the authorities about this danger but who listens? This tragedy was waiting to happen. Inspite of complaints, this death trap was not properly barricaded to prevent loss of lives,” Bharadwaj posted on X.
He also highlighted the human cost of the delay and alleged apathy. “Imagine the family and small kids of this man who must have been waiting all night for him, anxious for him to return home. And they will wait for their lives now,” he wrote.