26-year-old Radio Mirchi employee drowns after car plunges into 10-feet-deep drain in Noida

A Radio Mirchi employee died in Noida in the early hours of Wednesday after her car plunged into a 10-feet-deep drain as she negotiated a bend near the Sector 85 roundabout, according to media reports.

According to The Hindu , the deceased, identified as 26-year-old Tania Khanna, was a sales manager and a resident of Kavi Nagar in Ghaziabad. Khanna was driving to a friend’s house when the incident occurred.

The autopsy report listed the cause of death as drowning, according to The Times of India . The report mentioned that Tania had followed her friend’s car from Noida’s Atta market. “When they approached the Sector 85 roundabout, her friend drove on but Tania appears to have lost her way. She went too far to the left, went over the footpath and fell into the drain near Om Sai Nursery,” a police officer was quoted as saying in The Times of India report.

The Fire Department was called to extract the car from the drain after an eyewitness informed the Sector 85 roundabout chowki in-charge about the incident, according to The Hindu.

“The entire operation took around half-an-hour and the car was taken out of the drain. The windscreen was broken and Tania was lying on the back seat. She was rushed to a hospital, where she was declared brought dead,” The Hindu report quoted Satendra Kumar Rai, Station Officer, Phase 2 police station as saying.

Tania is believed to have been trapped in the car for at least 20-25 minutes before the police was able to extract her, according to The Times of India.

Police indicated that Tania was not drunk at the time of the incident_, The Hindu noted._

According to The Times of India, Tania’s younger brother Kunal blamed the sheer negligence of civic officials for his sister’s death. “Such a huge drain has been left uncovered and there is no proper mechanism of streets lights in the area. There is also no CCTV camera installed there. We are shattered,” he was quoted as saying in the report.

“Tania, who was part of Mirchi’s sales team in Delhi, was well-known within the organisation as a vivacious, ambitious and loved colleague. This tragedy has left a huge hole in all our hearts,” Radio Mirchi said in a statement, according to The Times of India.