Journalism of Courage
Dipti Sarna, the Snapdeal employee who was feared abducted on her way home from work in Ghaziabad Wednesday night, has reached home on Friday morning after more than 24 hours of disappearence.
Earlier today, Dipti called her brother and informed him that she was calling from Panipat and shall be reaching Delhi railway station at about 8.30 am. She made the call from her own mobile phone, which remained switched off for the last 36 hours, during which the police and her parents were searching for her. Her parents picked her up from the Delhi railway station and took her home.
According to top Haryana Police officers, it was not yet clear whether she boarded the train from Panipat or she was already in the train (boarded from somewhere else) when she called her parents.
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As for the 36 hours for which Dipti went missing, there was no clue yet where she stayed. However, Panipat police were checking the CCTV footage of the Panipat railway station to ascertain if Dipti boarded the train from Panipat. Local hotels/ guesthouses in Panipat are also being checked to find out if she was in Panipat yesterday or last night.
A photo of the Sarna family after their daughter returned. (Spurce: Twitter/@ANI)
Just before she went disappearing, Dipti boarded a shared autorickshaw from Vaishali Metro station to the Ghaziabad bus stand, an 11-km stretch, but did not make it to her destination. According to police, Dipti disappeared around 8.30 pm Wednesday near Hindon Bridge.
A PCR van at the spot near Hindon Bridge. Police had traced the GPS location of her phone to Nandgram village, a few kilometres from the spot, where raids have been conducted. (Express Photo by Amit Mehra)
On Wednesday evening, Narendra Sarna was waiting near Ghaziabad bus stand for his daughter Dipti when he received a frantic call from her friend.
“Dipti’s friend said that something had happened to her. They were talking on the phone when he heard her scream and the call got disconnected. He asked me to look for her,” said Narendra. He was supposed to pick up Dipti from the spot he was waiting at, like he did every evening, after she returned from her office in Gurgaon.
Dipti's parents Narendra and Vandana Sarna (Express Photo by Amit Mehra)
At 8.17 pm on Wednesday, they received the second phone call from Dipti. “I reached the spot where she would meet me everyday,” said Narendra. Narendra said that sometimes, he would pick Dipti up from Vaishali metro station. “Why did I not do that yesterday,” he had said lamenting the feared abduction of his daughter.
The Raj Nagar bus stp in Ghaziabad, where Dipti's father was waiting for her on Thursday night. (Express Photo by Amit Mehra)
At about 7.45 pm, Dipti called her parents to inform them that she had reached Vaishali metro station and was taking a shared auto-rickshaw to Ghaziabad bus stand. “Everyday, she would call us twice on her way back home. Once when she reached the metro station and then again when she was near the Hindon bridge. Her father would then pick her up,” said her mother Vandana.
