One-year-old boy drowns after falling into water-filled bucket in Faridabad

The boy was playing on the terrace while his parents and grandparents were doing chores downstairs when he crawled up to the bathroom area

A one-year-old boy drowned after falling headfirst into a bucket filled with water at his home in Jeevan Nagar Part-II, Faridabad, on Tuesday afternoon, police said on Wednesday.

The incident took place between 12.30pm and 1pm when the boy, Aryan, was playing on the terrace while his parents and grandparents were engaged in daily chores on the ground floor, police said.

Yashpal Yadav, public relations officer of Faridabad police, said the boy crawled towards the staircase and climbed up to the terrace, where the bucket, of about 20-litre capacity, had been kept near the bathroom entrance. “He found the bucket filled with water there. Either he took the bucket’s support to stand up or tried to play with the water when he lost balance and fell into it and drowned,” Yadav said.

Yadav said the family realised after 15 to 20 minutes that they could not find the child and went upstairs, where they found him unresponsive inside the bucket, with his legs sticking out. The family rushed him to a nearby clinic and later to a private hospital, where doctors tried to resuscitate him but were unsuccessful. He was subsequently pronounced dead, Yadav said.

Police said no foul play or familial rivalry was suspected and that no other angle was being probed. The child’s father, Bajrangi Kumar, stated in his complaint that the death was accidental. An inquiry under Section 194 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita was conducted at Mujesar police station on his statement. The body was handed over to the family after an autopsy on Wednesday.