NEW DELHI: As Mamta Pant started tipping forward, her foot failing to find a landing in the muddy water, her heart froze. “You hear about these things happening to others,” said the 22-year-old counselor hours after her near-death experience on the walk to office from the Jia Sarai bus stand.

“I felt I was going to die…my body probably would be found after a few days, when the water subsided… If it were not for Sanjeev Sir’s help…” Sanjeev ‘Sir’ Singh, the man who pulled Mamta out of the pit – literally by her hair – at the last moment when she had already gulped a lot of water is a 1987-batch IPS officer posted with the National Investigation Agency. Showing lightning fast reflexes, the 51-year-old jumped to Mamta’s rescue.