Haryana: To celebrate New Year, Panipat trader jumps into Western Yamuna Canal, drowns; search operation continues

YAMUNANAGAR: A 52-year-old trader from Panipat drowned in the Western Yamuna Canal (WYC) near Nagawa Jagir in the Buria police station area of Yamunanagar while visiting the city with friends to celebrate the New Year. Despite an extensive search operation involving local divers and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), the man remained untraced till late Friday evening.

According to police and administrative officials, the incident occurred late Thursday evening. The victim has been identified as Devender, a resident of village Buana Lakhu in the Israna police station area of Panipat district. He was a businessman and also a wrestler.


Jagadhri SDM Vishwanath stated that, as per information provided by Devender’s family members and friends, he had come to Yamunanagar on Thursday with his friends Sandeep, Surjeet and Praveen. After visiting several places in the city, the group reached the WYC near Kashmargarh village in the Buria area in the evening.

Friends told the police that Devender decided to bathe in the canal. Despite being warned by his companions not to enter the water due to cold weather and darkness, he went ahead and stepped into the canal. Soon after entering the water, he began to drown. On seeing him submerge, his friends raised an alarm and sought help from nearby people.

The Buria police reached the spot promptly, and a search operation was launched with the help of local divers Amar Singh and Ramkesh. However, the victim could not be located during the night search.

On Friday, the search operation was intensified with the deployment of an SDRF team along with local divers. The teams conducted a thorough search using boats from the incident site up to the Buria bridge, but no trace of Devender was found till the time of filing this report.

Buria SHO said that efforts to locate the missing trader are ongoing. He appealed to the public to share any information related to the incident or the missing person on the following contact numbers: 9416189278, 9050507676, and 9416218815.

Authorities said the search operation will continue until further leads emerge.