Haiderpur: Where bodies of missing people end up

Around 10pm on April 23, an employee at the Haiderpur water treatment plant (WTP) in Rohini Sector 13 found a headless and limbless corpse stuck in the iron filtration nets of the facility.

- Karn Pratap Singh

NEW DELHI: While the situation was disquieting, there was no sense of panic—this being the 10th body to be discovered here this year alone.

According to information shared by the police, at least 91 corpses have been found here from 2022 to April 27, 2025, with an average of 25-30 bodies ending up at the Delhi Jal Board's (DJB's) WTP every year.

The reason is geographical: Raw water reaches the Haiderpur WTP through two water channels—Channel Lined Canal (CLC) and Delhi Sub Branch (DSB)—of the Munak Canal, a 102-kilometre-long aqueduct that carries water from the Yamuna from Haryana's Karnal, travels south via the Khubru and Mandora barrages, and ends at the Haiderpur WTP.

A senior police officer from the KN Katju Marg police station, on condition of anonymity, said that the Munak Canal has no filtration nets between Haryana and Delhi, due to which bodies from Haryana and other parts of Delhi end up here. As bodies from Haryana take multiple days to reach the Haiderpur WTP, nearly all of them decompose beyond identification and most of them remain unidentified and unclaimed.

"In some instances, killers used Munak Canal to dispose of bodies of their victims, besides people dying by suicide and those suffering accidents. Bodies related to cases from Bawana, Narela and Samaypur Badli also end up here. In some cases, cars and weapons used in crimes were also thrown to hide evidence," the officer said.

The CLC is a concrete water route with boundary walls on both sides, while the DSB is a kutcha water channel without boundary walls. Both water channels are 10 to 15 feet deep and separated by a road used by people residing near the Delhi-Haryana border.