JAIPUR: The body of a six-year-old girl, who was reported missing from Amber Fort on Friday, was recovered from Amber Maotha (lake) on Saturday.
Police said the girl, Ahana alias Mishti Mandal, fell into the maotha while they were playing nearby and her parents were momentarily distracted when they noticed their daughter was missing. Her father Anant Mandal, who hails from Odisha, is stationed at the Indian Air Force base in Jodhpur.
Ahana had come from Jodhpur with her parents to visit Jaipur. The family had been exploring the Amber Fort and nearby tourist spots since Friday morning and was now visiting Amber Maotha.
“Maotha is about 25 meters deep”
“Around 12.30 pm, when they were walking near the maotha and Anant Mandal was talking to his wife, Ahana let go of her hands and disappeared. Despite an intensive search, they could not find her. Her photograph was sent to all the police stations in the city, but no information was received,” a police official said.
In one of the video footages of the area surveyed by the police, Ahana was seen walking towards the maotha. “The parents also suspected that the girl might have fallen into the water, so we launched a rescue operation on Friday,” the official said. An 11-member team, including the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and rescue workers from the civil defence, searched for the girl until nightfall but were unsuccessful.
“The Maotha is 500 metres long and 200 metres wide. It is about 25 metres deep. We started the rescue operation around 6 pm but had to call it off at 9 pm. On Saturday, we started the rescue operation again at 5.45 am. We discovered the body at 7 am,” said SDRF commander Rajendra Singh. The body has been taken to the SMS Hospital mortuary for postmortem, he added.