Woman, daughter killed as van plunges into canal

A woman and her newborn daughter died when the Maruti Omni van they were travelling in plunged into outer Delhi’s Munak canal. Her husband who was driving the vehicle miraculously escaped with minor injuries raising doubts over whether he had planned the incident.

Bodies of both mother and son have been fished out from the canal after an effort of four hours, police said.

The incident happened on Tuesday around 10 pm when Anil, 26, was driving his wife Hemlata, 24, and four-month-old daughter Avantika back home from his in-laws’ house in his van.

Following the incident, police took Anil in the police station and questioned him for several hours about the accident.

According to police, Anil was driving his van which had dim head lights causing difficulty in seeing him properly. As the van reached near the canal, the headlight of an incoming heavy vehicle dazzled him for couple of seconds which unbalanced the van and it first swerved towards the mud road and then dived into the canal headlong.

Anil told police that since he was not wearing seatbelt and the window glass was only half shut he managed to wriggle out from the space and with a help of a tree’s branch pulled himself out of the water.

His wife and daughter who were sitting next to him were wearing their seat belt hence couldn’t come out of the car in time and soon were drowned in the deep canal which also has high current.

After reaching on the canal’s bank, Anil shouted for help and few people gathered at the spot who called up police. Within 20 minutes a rescue operation had started with rescuers from the boat club diving in to the canal in search of the woman and her daughter.

After an effort of four hours, bodies of Hemlata and Avantika were fished out from the canal.

After the incident, police took Anil for questioning and Hemlata’s parents’ complained to the police and sub-divisional-magistrate against their son-in-law of murdering their daughter and grand daughter.

Hemlata’s parents also alleged that Anil had planned the accident as he is having an extra-marital relationship with his sister-in-law over which the couple had a fight some time back.

They also alleged that because of the fight Hemlata was living at their home for the last one month.

Police have however not registered an FIR in the case yet as they want to investigate further to ascertain the real cause of the death.

“We are still in the process of ascertaining the nature of the incident. Once it is done a case will be registered under appropriate charges,” said a police officer.Bodies of both mother and daughter have been sent for postmortem.