2 min readLudhianaApr 16, 2026 02:10 PM IST
Six days after a boat ferrying pilgrims from Punjab capsized in Vrindavan of Uttar Pradesh, the toll reached 16 Thursday, with the recovery of another body from the Yamuna River.
Pankaj Malhotra, 40, a resident of Jalalabad in Punjab’s Fazilka district, was the nephew of Kavita Behal of Jagraon, who also died in the accident, along with her son Madhur Behal.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Pankaj’s father, Sukhdev Malhotra, confirmed that his son’s body has been found.
Struggling to hold his tears, Sukhdev said, “My son has been found. We will reach home for his last rites after the autopsy is done. He has a wife and two small children waiting. There were no safety arrangements on that boat—no life jackets, nothing.”
Pankaj, a private company employee, travelled to Vrindavan with his aunt and around 130 other pilgrims from Jagraon in Ludhiana on April 9.
Hours after reaching Vrindavan on April 10, a group of at least 37 pilgrims decided to visit the samadhi of Devraha Baba, located on the opposite bank of the Yamuna.
They hired a boat to cross the water. As a single boat could not safely accommodate the entire group, 8 to 10 of them transferred to another boat.
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As they sailed across the Yamuna, the chants of “Radhe Radhe” reverberated across the water once again—only to be heard for the final time.
Within 30 to 40 seconds of setting off, the boat carrying over 30 pilgrims collided with a metal drum of a floating pontoon bridge and capsized. Later, viral videos showed that none of the passengers was wearing a life jacket.
