Uttarakhand MBA Student Seen On Camera Hours Before Going Missing During Trek

CCTV footage has surfaced of 24-year-old Babita Pandey that shows her with her two friends hours before she went missing during a trek to Dayara Bugyal in Uttarakhand's Uttarkashi. 

The video shows Pandey, who has been missing since the evening of May 29, standing at the rear of a black SUV with the trunk open. Her friends -- Harmanpal Singh and Harmanpreet Singh -- can also be seen standing near the car in the CCTV. One of the friends was seen taking some items out of a luggage kept in the trunk.

The footage, dated May 29, is reportedly from the homestay in the Raithal village, where the trio had stayed before starting their trek.

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Pandey, an MBA student from Nainital, had gone to Uttarkashi with Harmanpal of Uttarakhand's Udham Singh Nagar and Harmanpreet of Uttar Pradesh's Shahjahanpur. They first visited Dehradun on May 25 and stayed there for a day.

They then visited Harsil, Gangotri, and nearby tourist spots.

On May 28, they went to Raithal village and stayed overnight. A day later, they started their trek to Dayara Bugyal and stayed the night at Goi base camp.

Around midnight, Pandey went missing from the camp.

The police received a missing complaint from her family and launched a massive search operation. Harmanpal and Harmanpreet have been detained.

A 150-member team comprising personnel from the army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, State Disaster Response Force, National Disaster Response Force, police, the forest department, and disaster management is currently involved in search operations.

They are also using sniffer dogs and drone surveillance across a five-kilometre radius of the dense forest, trekking routes, and caves to find Pandey.

A six-member diving team is also searching a lake near the Goi camp site.

The police have issued her picture on social media platforms and asked the public to help find her.

Meanwhile, the registration of the trekking agency, Pro Mountain, which sent Pandey and her friends to Dayara Bugyal has been suspended. It was found that the trio were sent on the trek using a fake permit.

Uttarkashi District Tourism Officer KK Joshi said that enquiries revealed no valid digital permits had been issued for Pandey or her companions on the official tourism portal, 'Explore Uttarkashi'.

The investigation showed that the trekking agency bypassed government revenue regulations and the daily limit of 150 trekkers by pasting the names of Pandey and her friends onto an expired physical permit. When the QR code was scanned at the checkpost, it retrieved data belonging to previous trekkers. Joshi said the forgery initially delayed rescue teams from identifying the trekkers and their handling agency.