Deep dive team joins search for missing trekker in U’khand

Uttarkashi: A specialised deep-dive team on Wednesday conducted a search in the Ghoi pond to trace Babita Pandey, a 24-year-old MBA student from Nainital, who went missing from the Ghoi campsite on the Dayara Bugyal trek around midnight on May 29.The team, comprising members from SDRF, police, disaster management master trainers, and quick response team, arrived Tuesday evening and began operations on Wednesday morning using boats and divers. Officials said a diver descended into the pond, approximately seven to eight ft deep, but failed to locate her.Despite a search by police, forest department, SDRF, NDRF, Special Operations Group (SOG), ITBP, disaster management teams, drones and dog squads, Babita remained untraced for the sixth day and the NDRF has since withdrawn its two sniffer dogs from the site.“Despite the intensive search efforts, no clues regarding Babita’s whereabouts have been discovered,” said SDRF district in-charge JP Bijalwan.Babita mysteriously disappeared from the campsite last Friday. Her companions, Harmanpreet Singh of Uttar Pradesh and Harmanpal of Srinagar, reported her absence to the trekking agency, which then alerted the emergency helpline 112. A search and rescue operation was launched immediately after the report was received at 8pm on Saturday.Meanwhile, the probe has exposed an alleged fake permit racket in which Babita’s name and those of her co-trekkers were pasted on an expired physical permit to bypass mandatory registration, environmental fees, and daily trail checks.