If only they hadn’t taken that route, rue families

NEW DELHI: Destiny could not have played a crueller trick on the Singh family as it did on Friday. The day started on an ecstatic note with Abhishek Gautam Singh getting a job offer and ended a few hours later with the father pulling out his son’s body from the Kondli canal.

Abhishek, 23, had left home to buy sweets to celebrate the news of his new job when a mountain of trash collapsed and swept him and his friend into the waterway running parallel to the road.

Mahipal Singh, resident of Khoda Colony in Ghazipur, heard about the towering mound of trash crashing down. “Like everyone else, we rushed to the spot to have a look. We realised Abhishek could have drowned only when his friend Deepak was helped out of the canal,” said the inconsolable father. Deepak had been riding pillion with Abhishek on his bike.

“After searching for over an hour, one of the searchers located his body,” wept Mahipal, who pulled out Abhishek’s body with the help of other people.

“I knew I was hoping against hope, but kept pumping his heart, desperately trying to revive him.”

Rajkumari, the other casualty from Khoda Colony, too was on a scooter with brother Pankaj and his friend Karan. They were headed for

New Ashok Nagar

where Pankaj had his tuition centre. The two boys were rescued safely, but it took over 20 minutes to locate Rajkumari, by which time she was dead.

Kishori

Devi

, the mother, said that her daughter worked at a beauty parlour and had agreed to drop her brother since she had to take her Scooty to a petrol pump for a refill.

“She normally did not use that road, and I wish she hadn’t today,” Devi sobbed as she buried her face in her son’s arms.