Three NCR traders feared dead as car plunges into Meerut canal

MEERUT: Two businessmen from Delhi and another from Ghaziabad, all friends, were feared drowned after their car went out of control and fell into Upper Ganga canal in Meerut’s Sardhana area, just 6km away from the spot on the “killer stretch” where five from a family were washed away a day ago in a similar incident.
The accident took place on early Sunday morning, but there was no trace of anyone by Monday evening.
Just like the other days, 32-year-old Hunny Setia, Vivek Verma (33) and Harnesh Singh (33) had left homes on Saturday evening after telling their families that they were going for some work. But, they had other plans in mind, and later police said that they were heading for Haridwar.
On their way to the holy city, they took the Upper Ganga canal route, an unlit and patchy shortcut which saves commuters from highway rush and cuts the total distance by 20km. However, it is also known as a “killer” stretch locally. Their car veered off the road and fell into the canal at 3am on Sunday, leaving just a wheel cap as trace.
While Setia and Singh lived in Delhi’s Mahendra Park, Verma lived in Ghaziabad’s Loni area. Setia and Verma jointly own a soap manufacturing unit in Swaroop Nagar of Delhi. Singh is also a businessman and a friend of the duo.
According to locals, a passerby made a distress call to police soon after the accident at 3am on Sunday morning. But the relief operation started only after 11am, after about eight hours of delay. Due to obsolete methods and archaic diving gears, local police was unable to find the car by Sunday. The search operation again started on Monday morning and divers of 44 batallion of PAC were pressed into service but to no avail.
Meanwhile, the families of the businessmen also reached the spot. They demanded deployment of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team for search operation.
When contacted, Meerut SP (rural) Avinash Pandey said, “We have already relayed our request to NDRF. They will be sending a team on the spot.”
This comes a day after five of a family, including two children, died due to drowning after their SUV fell into the canal. They were going from Gurgaon to Haridwar.
The “killer” stretch along the Upper Ganga canal, which has a one-foot barricading separating the 15-foot-wide road used for two-way traffic from the canal, has witnessed several similar incidents in the recent past. A car carrying three HCL-Noida employees had plunged into the canal on the night of December 13 on the same stretch when they were returning from Muzaffarnagar after dropping one of their colleagues there. Almost two weeks later, another car fell into the canal on the same stretch, leaving four of a family dead on December 25.