For 26 monsoons, the waters of the Bhakra Canal concealed a grim secret, as three families from Ropar district endured years of grief and hope. On Sunday, a heavily corroded Maruti Omni, rusted and falling apart, was pulled from the depths, still containing a child's school uniform, luggage, personal belongings, and a few bones — the remains of four individuals who had been missing since 2000.
Closure After Decades of Despair
Finally, the families who never abandoned the search, despite being driven to poverty, have found closure. The photographs of Munni Lal, Tej Ram, Surjit Singh, and Surjit's eight-year-old son Kalu, which hung on their walls for years, have now been garlanded, allowing their loved ones to bid farewell.
The Disappearance
All four were returning from a wedding on October 17, 2000, in the Omni that Tej Ram had purchased only a month earlier. They never reached their home in Kotla village, about 80 kilometers from Chandigarh. Their families searched desperately, hiring divers to scour the canal and selling land to fund the search, but all efforts failed. The case went cold.
The Discovery
The breakthrough came on Sunday when local diver Kamalpreet Saini plunged into the dangerous currents of the Bhakra Canal near Nakkian village to search for another missing person. He spotted the heavily corroded van, lying 32 feet deep on the canal bed. After a nearly three-hour operation under difficult conditions, the vehicle was brought to the surface.
According to Saini, the rear portion and roof of the van were badly damaged, likely from impact and prolonged exposure to strong water currents and pressure. A few skeletal remains, clothing, shoes, and the child's school uniform were recovered.
Emotional and Financial Toll
Sita Devi, wife of Munni Lal, described how the tragedy shattered their family financially and emotionally. "We kept waiting for him for years. His parents died pining for him. Due to lack of proof, we could not even obtain his death certificate for official purposes," she told the Times of India. Mounting debts forced the family to sell their dairy shop five years after the disappearance, but they continued the search. "Even after all these years, I and my children never lost hope," she said, pointing to a photo of her husband. "I have garlanded him after his last prayers."
Tej Ram's son Bhupinder, who was five at the time, recalled the hardships. "I am told my father sold 3 kanals of land (about 16,335 square feet) to buy the Omni barely a month before the accident. We sold another 5 kanals (27,225 square feet) to finance search operations in the canal," he said. The families borrowed heavily to hire private divers after official searches failed. "Despite all the hardships, my brother and I managed to study till Class 12," added Bhupinder, who now runs a cyber cafe.
Diving Challenges
Saini noted that multiple professional diving teams from Dehradun, Delhi, Haridwar, and Rajasthan conducted unsuccessful searches in 2000. The victims' families spent over Rs 1.2 lakh to hire another private diving team from Faridabad, again in vain. "The canal bed at this point contains heavy junk material, including iron debris and submerged vehicle parts. Diving here is extremely risky because of the strong underwater pressure. The diver has to hold a tire firmly to slow down his speed due to the extreme pressure," Saini explained. Attaching chains and cables to the wreck was extremely dangerous, "but it brought closure to the families," he said.
Police Response and Rituals
Kiratpur Sahib SHO Inspector Rahul Sharma said the families, with local divers, recovered the van themselves and then informed police. Preliminary information suggested skeletal remains of at least one person were recovered, but this was not disclosed to police. Some bone fragments tangled in the victims' clothes, including the child's, were immersed according to religious rituals. The families held a collective Ardas at Gurdwara Patalpuri Sahib in Ropar.
