UP official drowns in Ganga as diver waited for online money transfer to complete

Lucknow: A delay in online transfer of money to a diver allegedly cost a senior Uttar Pradesh official his life.

Adityavardhan Singh, a joint director in the UP health department, drowned in the Ganga river in Kanpur while taking bath on Saturday.

According to the reports, Singh’s friends, who had accompanied him, requested a diver, who was present at the ghat, to rescue him but the diver demanded 10,000 rupees and said that he would jump into the river only after the money was paid.

As the friends did not have cash, they made online transfers of money. The diver, identified as Shailesh Kashyap, waited for the confirmation of online payment. By then, Singh had vanished from view, drowning in the swollen river.

Kashyap did start searching for the official after receiving the money but he could not be traced, reports said.

Singh’s friends said that had the diver jumped into the river immediately, the official could have been saved.

Police sources said that Singh, who was posted at Kanpur, had reached the Nanamau ghat on the bank of the Ganga on Saturday. While taking a bath in the river, Singh slipped and was swept by the strong currents.

Sources said that Singh was taking a selfie when he accidentally slipped. Sources said that Singh’s wife was a judge in Maharashtra .

Senior district officials rushed to the spot and divers and motorboats were pressed into service to trace the body but it could not be found. The search operations were still going on, sources said, at the time of publication.