New Delhi, May 27 -- 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. 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. Deputy commissioner of police (Rohini) Amit Goel said: "Recovery of human bodies is a regular occurrence, as two to three such incidents are reported every month at the KN Katju Marg police station, keeping many personnel busy identifying the victims and finding their families, establishing the cause of deaths and the circumstances under which they died, registering murder cases and probing them to nab the killers, and performing last rites of unidentified and unclaimed bodies." When police checked the body found on April 23, they found two Aadhaar cards in the victim's clothing, issued to Anoop and Mukesh, both having the same guardian, named Lala. Station house officer Pramod Anand of KN Katju Marg police station, perturbed by the discovery of the body within 10 days of another, said the Zonal Integrated Police Network pointed to a missing complaint filed at Bawana police station on March 15-a day after Holi -naming the person as Anoop, and guardian as Lala. The Bawana police were informed, the missing man's family identified the body and an autopsy suggested that the 27-year-old man's head and limbs were severed due to remaining in water for 40 days. It was concluded that Anoop died of drowning, possibly after accidentally falling into the canal, SHO Anand said. However, not all cases yield clear clues or even faint leads. Police said that of the 91 bodies that ended up here since 2022, only 28 have been identified. Even in cases where bodies are identified and the cause of death established as murder, seven murder cases from 2022 and 2023 registered at the KN Katju Marg police station remain unsolved. "...we were lucky. Despite recovering a highly decomposed, headless and limbless body that was 40 days old, we could identify the victim and connect the case. In fact, luck favoured us second time in a row because the previous victim-a 35-year-old woman's body was recovered on April 13 at the same spot-was also identified and her missing complaint was found registered at the Samaypur Badli police station," he said. But of the 10 bodies recovered this year, the identities of only three were established, while 10 of 25 bodies were identified in 2024 and seven of 27 in 2023, according to police data accessed by HT. DCP Goel said that identifying victims, establishing the circumstances under which their bodies reached the WTP, and the disposal of their bodies are the key challenges personnel of the KN Katju Marg police station face. SHO Anand said that identifying bodies in cases of murder and suicide is an arduous task as compared to identifying victims of accidents. "In murder cases, you will not find identification documents with the bodies. The limbs of victims are tied and sometimes a heavy object is also tied with the bodies to ensure they remain under water. In some cases, bodies are found without heads and if heads are found, there are chances that the faces were disfigured beyond identification," Anand said. Besides corpses, the canals are also hubs for throwing animal carcasses, garbage and waste materials generated in religious events, such as pujas and fire rituals (hawans), by people living in northwest and outer Delhi. All such items flow with the water and eventually, reach the Haiderpur WTP, where three sets of filtration nets are installed to ensure they are removed well before the raw water reaches the filtration machines, said Vivek Paswan, an employee at the Haiderpur WTP whose job is to watch for bodies and other water materials at the first set of filtration nets. "The frequency of the recovery of bodies increases during summer, as tens of hundreds of people, most of them being children, use the canal for bathing and swimming, and many drown in the process-either because they did not know how to swim or due to suffering fatal injuries while diving into it from a height. At least two employees are deployed near the filtration nets in three shifts every day to spot and remove bodies apart from other garbage items. We alert security guards as soon as a body is found and they, in turn, ring the police up," Paswan said. Police said they have decided to raise the issue with Haryana in the next interstate police meeting. They said that until the 1990s, there was a decades-old wire net across the Munak Canal in Haryana, but it was removed as it was blocking waste. "We will ask our counterparts in Haryana Police to install filtration next across the canal in their jurisdiction so that bodies from their side do not float into Delhi. If the bodies related to Haryana are found there itself, the chances of their identification would be high," DCP Goel said....