NEW DELHI: In a tragic end to a week-long search, the body of 19-year-old Delhi University student Sneha Debnath from Tripura was found under the Geeta Colony flyover in the Yamuna River, police confirmed on Sunday.
The young woman, who had been missing since July 7, had left behind a note indicating her intent to die by suicide by jumping from the Signature Bridge.
Sneha, a resident of Tripura and a student at Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, had moved to Delhi for higher studies.
According to her family, she left home that morning, claiming she was going to drop a friend at Sarai Rohilla Railway Station. Her last contact with her mother was at 5:56 am, but her phone was switched off shortly after.
Shockingly, it was later revealed that Sneha never met her friend and instead asked a cab driver to drop her at Signature Bridge, a location known for suicide attempts and where, crucially, none of the CCTV cameras were functioning.
The family discovered a handwritten note in Sneha’s room stating, “I just feel like a failure and burden, and it was getting unbearable to live like this.” The note further emphasized that there was “no foul play” and that it was “my decision.”
Sneha’s disappearance prompted a wide-scale search effort involving the Delhi Police, Crime Branch, and the National Disaster
Response Force (NDRF).
A seven-kilometre stretch of the Yamuna around Signature Bridge was scoured on July 9. Eyewitnesses reportedly saw a girl standing alone on the bridge before she disappeared.
Her mobile phone, the only possession she carried, remained untraceable, and her bank account activity had been dormant for months.
Her father, retired Army Subedar Major (Honorary Lieutenant) Pritish Debnath, is battling kidney failure and undergoing regular dialysis.
The family has expressed anguish over the lack of urgency in the police investigation, especially the 48-hour delay in filing the First Information Report under Section 140(3) of the BNS at Mehrauli Police Station.
“The report of Sneha Debnath, a resident of Tripura, who was reportedly missing in New Delhi, has come to the notice,” tweeted by The Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha’s office while directing the state police to assist in the search.
Family members, including Sneha’s mother and sister, shared heartfelt appeals on social media, urging the public and media not to let Sneha become “just another missing person statistic.”
Sneha’s sister, Bipasha Debnath, expressed disbelief over the suicide note, questioning if Sneha could have been coerced or manipulated. “She is 19. If she really wanted to end her life, she didn’t have to go all the way to the bridge where 60 cameras don’t work,” she said.
As investigations continue, Sneha Debnath’s death has reignited concerns about women’s safety and surveillance gaps in the national capital.