Boy, 9, dies after falling into pool of rainwater

Chasing a kite with his friends, a nine-year-old boy drowned after falling into a deep pool of rainwater near his home in Burari, north Delhi, on Wednesday evening.

The boy’s parents accused the Delhi Jal Board of negligence as they claimed the spot where he drowned belonged to the agency. They alleged that the area was unfenced and had been dug up just days before the fatal accident.

However, city’s minister for water Kapil Mishra claimed that the site in question had been handed over to Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) a year ago for construction of a sub-station.

The TPDDL too was unwilling to take the blame, claiming that the accident took place beyond the area allotted to them. “The accident spot does not belong to the area demarcated to us. In any case, we have not undertaken any digging work at all in the area,” said a TPDDL spokesperson.

Madhur Verma, DCP (north), said a case of causing death by negligence has been registered after the boy’s parents complained against the DJB. “Who owned the land where the drowning took place and who exactly was responsible for the mishap is yet to be investigated,” said Mr Verma.

The victim has been identified as Jastin Masih, a Class 3 student of a local private school where his mother is a teacher. His father, Pravesh, works for a restaurant in the area.

The accident spot served as a playground for local children for the past several years, said Pravesh. Even weddings have been organised on that land in the past, he claimed.

“But the DJB people had recently used a crane to dig up some parts of the land because of which rainwater had accumulated. While most parts of the land has two-foot deep water, the spot where my son drowned was at least 10 feet deep,” he added.

Pravesh was away at work around 7 pm when Jastin and his friends were playing. According to Jastin’s friends, he had noticed a kite falling and had run towards it and away from them.

“Because of the recent digging undertaken, Jastin was probably unaware of the depth of the water at that spot because of which he drowned,” said the victim’s uncle Maurice John.

The other children, meanwhile, returned home scared after they couldn’t locate Jastin. It was only when a search for the boy began around an hour later that the children revealed that he had ventured into the water. The boy’s father and others searched the area and finally located the body around two hours later. The police was informed and a team arrived with firefighters to fish out the body, but the locals had already taken the body out by then.