Abhishek’s father Mahipal Singh (left); Deepak, who was among those injured. (Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey) Abhishek’s father Mahipal Singh (left); Deepak, who was among those injured. (Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

Abhishek Gautam wanted to splurge on Friday afternoon, so he used the Rs 450 he earned that day to buy a “full murga”. Twenty minutes after the purchase, the 20-year-old — along with his cousin Amit and friend Deepak — got washed into a canal at Ghazipur. While locals managed to rescue Amit and Deepak, Abhishek was declared brought dead by doctors at Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Hospital. “We were on the pucca road on two bikes, returning home to Rajbir Colony nearby, when I saw a lot of garbage fall into the canal. The water rose and it came on the road, and we got pulled into the canal. The last thing I saw was the water… Then someone threw a pipe and a few people jumped in to save us,” said Amit, still in shock after the incident.

Outside the mortuary at LBS stood Abhishek’s 50-year-old father, Mahipal Singh, inconsolable and confused. “I was in Greater Noida when I got the call at 2.45 pm about my son falling into the canal… I reached the spot an hour later but he still hadn’t been found. Someone told me a boy’s body was being put in an ambulance. I ran; it was my son,” said Singh, who is yet to tell Abhishek’s brother about his death.

Read | Garbage mound collapse kills 2, sweeps away several vehicles

He added, “Authorities are to be blamed for it… Why was that garbage dump so huge? Why did it fall? I can’t do anything about it… Mera toh jawaan ladka chala gaya.” Abhishek was doing his Bachelors from the School of Open Learning.

Amit said, “My bike’s tyre got punctured, so I asked Abhishek and Deepak to leave and that I would come after getting it fixed. But Abhishek insisted we all go together… maybe if he hadn’t, he would be alive.”

Minutes later, Deepak walked out of the emergency ward with blood stains below his right ear. “We kept getting pushed by the water at first… Somehow Amit and I reached one side of the canal and locals rescued us. But Abhishek wasn’t there… I think he got stuck under the bike. He was my friend, my family, my brother,” said Deepak. “Doctors here said my ear is injured but they don’t have an ear doctor here… they’ve referred me to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital.”

Also read | Garbage dump crossed danger mark in 2002 but EDMC, DDA kept shifting blame

The body of the other victim, Raj Kumari (20), has also been preserved at the morgue at LBS, and a post-mortem is scheduled for Saturday. She was riding pillion on a Scooty behind her brother, who also sustained injuries in the incident.

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