The body of 17-year-old Fiza Khan, who was missing since Tuesday afternoon, was found over 24 hours later after an extensive search operation.
Fiza reportedly fell into an artificial water body in Powai in an abandoned stone quarry. Fire Brigade officials conducted search operations until 8.45 p.m. on Tuesday and resumed search operations on Wednesday morning with divers of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
Since the NDRF divers could only dive up to 20 meters, the Navy was called in to assist with the search operations. The body was found at around 5.50 p.m. at the same spot where her dupatta was found. The body was taken to Rajawadi Hospital for a post-mortem.
Residents of Manubhai Chawl, where the deceased lived, said that Fiza and her cousin had gone to use an open toilet near water body around 1.45 p.m. “She asked her cousin if she should jump into the water,” said Parvin Sheikh.
Fiza was set to marry Ms. Sheikh’s son who works in Saudi Arabia. Fiza’s cousin, according to Ms. Sheikh, brought her back to the area and asked her to go home. She was seen going to the spot again around 2.10 p.m. When she did not return home for two hours, her father went looking for her.
They found her slippers floating in the water, while her her dupatta was on a rock nearby. Fiza has three younger siblings: two sisters and a brother. Her father, Firoz, works as a daily wage labourer. Both Ms. Sheikh and Fiza’s father said that Fiza showed no signs of unhappiness and was fine until that morning. In January last year, Saddam and Aslam Shaikh, two siblings from Manubhai Chawl, drowned after one of slipped into the water body and the other tried to save him.
