A multi-agency search operation for a 24-year-old trekker from Uttarakhand's Ramnagar, who went missing while camping on a meadow trek in Uttarkashi, entered its fifth day on Wednesday.
Babita Pandey, an MBA student, and her two friends were camping on the Dayara Bugyal trek route when she disappeared around midnight on May 29.
Over 150 personnel from the Army, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, police, forest department, revenue, and disaster management department teams were deployed for the search operation.
A six-member specialised search team has also been constituted to intensify the operation, focusing on searching nearby lakes, water bodies, and other inaccessible locations.
Pandey's family has raised suspicions regarding the role of her two friends, leading to a case being registered against them under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita's Section 140(3), which relates to kidnapping or abducting with intent to secretly and wrongfully confine a person.
