'She sent a final message, then vanished': DU student Sneha Debnath's body found in Yamuna; friends recall months of struggle
Sneha Debnath had sent text messages and mails to friends on July 7 morning, indicating she intended to end her life, and mentioned the bridge.
Debnath's father, a retired Army officer, had turned to social media with emotional appeals for help and police action. The case spanned two states — Delhi and Tripura, from where family hails.
An FIR was filed July 9, two days after she went missing and her phone was switched off.
According to the FIR, Debnath told her mother around 5am on July 7 that she was going to drop a friend at Sarai Rohilla railway station.
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At 5.15am, a cab arrived at their south Delhi residence. When the family called her at 8.45am, her phone was switched off. Worried, they contacted her friend, only to learn that Debnath had not met her. It was the cab driver who revealed that he had dropped Debnath at Signature Bridge.
"A note provided by the family indicated her intention to jump from Signature Bridge.
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Her close friends also mentioned that she had been upset over the past few months and had sent emails and WhatsApp messages earlier that morning. Some eyewitnesses said they saw a girl standing on the bridge, who was later missing," DCP (South) Ankit Chauhan said. The body was recovered from the river near Geeta Colony flyover, around 10km from the bridge.
It is not clear why Debnath, a second-year BSc maths student at Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, decided to take the drastic step and when she told her friends about it.
Her family said she had taken only her phone with her as she left home on July 7.
The family alleged police inaction and pointed out that not a single CCTV camera at Signature Bridge was functional. "The bridge reportedly has over 60 CCTV cameras, but not a single one was functional on July 7, aside from a speed-monitoring camera that only captures still images of fast-moving vehicles," Bipasha Debnath, Sneha's elder sister, told TOI.
"My father is a retired officer who served in the Army for over 30 years. He's 53 now, battling chronic kidney failure and undergoing dialysis and yet, I saw him standing at the bridge, barely able to walk, asking strangers if they had seen his daughter."
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) conducted a search on July 9, which remained inconclusive until Sunday evening when her body was recovered. The family confirmed her identity.
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