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3 kids drown in a pit filled with rainwater at Tughlakabad park
New Delhi: Three schoolchildren, aged between 13 and 16, drowned to death on Thursday while they were having a bath in a mud pit inside the waterlogged Kaya Maya park in the Tughlakabad area of southeast Delhi -- just days after a similar tragedy in Gurugram where six children died while playing in a waterlogged pit at a construction site
New Delhi: Three schoolchildren, aged between 13 and 16, drowned to death on Thursday while they were having a bath in a mud pit inside the waterlogged Kaya Maya park in the Tughlakabad area of southeast Delhi -- just days after a similar tragedy in Gurugram where six children died while playing in a waterlogged pit at a construction site.
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA)-run park is behind the Kaya Maya ayurvedic hospital, and stretches over 75 acres near the Adilabad fort. Police said the three children were residents of the nearby JJ colony in Tughlakabad.
Esha Pandey, the deputy commissioner of police (southeast), said police received a distress call at 2.38pm at the Pul Prahladpur police station about the incident.
“The police immediately rushed to the spot, where they met Lucky alias Love, a 16-year-old boy. The boy told the police that he, along with his friends, had come to have a bath in the rainwater in an open ground inside the park. When they were busy bathing, three of his friends went into a muddy side of the ground, and drowned,” she said.
She further said that after recording Lucky’s statement, police teams entered the water, and fished out the bodies of three children. They three were taken to the Majeedia Hospital in Hamdard Nagar, where they were declared “brought dead”.
“The names of the deceased are Risabh, 16, of Class 11; Piyush, 13, of Class 8; and Piyush Baswal, 16, of Class 10,” DCP Pandey said. They all studied at a government school in Tughlakabad.
A police officer, who visited the accident spot, said, “Because of the rain last week, in one muddy stretch of the park, rainwater had accumulated, making it look like a small pond. Some locals were using this waterlogged area to swim. The ground beneath the waterlogged area where the children drowned is uneven. The point where the incident happened may be at least 5 feet in depth. We took help of some locals who entered the water to rescue the three.”
Locals, however, claimed the pit was much deeper in some parts.
Baswal’s father, Nije Singh Baswal, said that all the three boys were close friends.
“They grew up together. When Lucky (the teenager who called the police) first came to me to tell me what had happened, he was in trauma. By the time we reached the spot, my son had drowned. I asked the people not to inform my wife yet -- she is keeping a fast for me today because of Karva Chauth, and has lost her son,” he said.
Their neighbour Dinesh Singh, who accompanied Baswal to the AIIMS mortuary, where the autopsy was being conducted, said that the JJ Colony residents had opposed the digging of the pit in the park.
“But as the pit, which is up to 15 feet deep, was being dug on the whims and fancies of some local politicians, neither the municipal authorities nor police listened to our concern. I am sure those politicians will surface in our area tomorrow, to announce some ex-gratia, to cover up their mistakes of digging the muddy graveyard of our children,” he said angrily.
Delhi has received 122.5mm rainfall so far this month, making it the wettest October since 1956, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD) data.
Locals said that, during the immersion of idols, or festivals such as Chhath Puja, they fill a stretch of the park with water for rituals. Fire officers said there is a stretch within the park where DDA has put up a warning urging locals not to swim.
Following the incident, DDA officials went to the park for an inspection. Police have also posted a guard to ensure that no one else enters the waterlogged area.
A senior DDA official, who visited the park, said: “The pond is usually dry but gets flooded during the monsoon. The water level increased due to the rain this season. We put up boards informing people not to go near the pond because the water is 3-4 feet deep in some spots, and deeper in some others. Our guard was on a round in another corner of the park when the incident happened.”
No case of negligence, or any other offence, has been registered so far.
Lucky, who had accompanied the three children, is not ready to accept that three of his friends are gone.
“We grew up together, played together, and even shared meals and clothes. Even today, they stopped me from having a bath because they knew that I had fever yesterday. There were around 40-50 people in the water before my friends drowned,“ he said.
“As soon as they drowned, and police was called, they fled.”
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