According to police in the last 3 months around a dozen devotees had drowned. (Representational)
The Ghaziabad district authorities have ordered a probe into an alleged racket where trained divers would drag devotees, including women, taking a dip at the Ganga canal in Muradnagar and rob them of ornaments and jewellery, official said yesterday.
The probe was ordered following a complaint by BJP MLA fron Loni, Nand Kishore Gurjar.
In his complaint Mr Gurjar alleged that some ladies while taking a dip in the canal were forcibly dragged into the water and their ornaments taken off.
The MLA complained that divers used to pose as if they had rescued the drowning lady, officials said. Mr Gurjar also complained that the racket was going on with the connivance of a priest and a contractor.
Earlier, a video went viral on social media in which a woman narrated her agony claiming some divers dragged her into the water and tried to snatch her ornaments.
After taking cognisance of the viral video I made the complaint seeking a probe into the matter, the MLA said.
District Magistrate Ritu Maheshwari said an inquiry by Sub Divisional Magistrate, Modinagar, Pawan Kumar, had been ordered. SDM Mr Kumar had summoned around two dozen persons active as divers on the banks of the canal and the alleged victims to record their statements.
According to a police official, in the last three months around a dozen devotees had drowned. In those cases postmortem was not conducted on the request of family members, the official said.
Executive Engineer of the Irrigation Department, Ashutosh Saraswat, expressed concern about encroachments on the banks of the canal.
When police department will provide force, the encroachment will be demolished due to which problems on the canal are increasing, Mr Saraswat said.