Six-year-old girl drowns in waterlogged vacant plot in Rohini

The incident occurred in the Rama Vihar area, where two to three vacant plots have remained inundated for months.

A six-year-old girl drowned after allegedly slipping into a waterlogged vacant plot near her home in Rohini, Delhi, on Thursday evening. Police said the child had left her house to play with friends but went missing. Her body was later found in the flooded plot around midnight.

Priyanshi Kumar is a resident of Rama Vihar and a class 1 student.

The incident occurred in the Rama Vihar area, where two to three vacant plots have remained inundated for months. Senior police officers said these uneven pools were three to five feet deep. Authorities are looking for the property owners who allowed the plots to remain in such hazardous conditions.

The deceased was identified as Priyanshi Kumar, a resident of Rama Vihar and a class 1 student of a government school nearby. According to police, Priyanshi’s family approached them around 6pm reporting that she had gone missing. Searches were carried out in the vicinity as police initially suspected kidnapping, but nothing conclusive emerged. CCTV footage was also checked, but the girl was not spotted.

DCP (Rohini) Rajeev Ranjan said, “We suspected the girl could have gone near the vacant plot to play. Police personnel extensively searched the area and found her floating in one of the inundated plots. She was rushed to Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Mangolpuri, where she was declared brought dead. Initially, the parents and relatives were reluctant to allow a post-mortem, but later they agreed.”

Her family said they initially refused the post-mortem, hoping the police would make an arrest in the case, but no arrests have been made so far.

Her father, Manoj Kumar, who works at a footwear factory in Mangolpuri, said, “She was my only child. She left the house around 3–4pm and told us she would be back in an hour or two. We started looking for her in the evening but couldn’t find her anywhere. Around midnight, someone spotted her floating. I was shocked. Divers had to retrieve her body. The water is very deep. She was only playing near her house. These plots have been inundated for months. When will the owners fix this?”