Thick as thieves, they even died together, say families of kids who drowned in Gurugram

On Monday, Anshu, the lone survivor, remained scarred by what he had witnessed. Though he accompanied his friends to the temporary water body, he had stayed away from the water because he’d had a fever the past five days

The six boys who drowned in a rainwater-filled pit in Gurugram’s Shankar Vihar Colony in Sector 111 on Sunday were a group of close-knit friends who grew up together, played together and often shared their meals.

Relatives console the grieving mother of one of the six children who drowned on Sunday in a temporary water body near Shankar Vihar Colony, in Sector 110, Gurugram. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

Durgesh (11), Ajit (10), Rahul (12), Piyush (10), Deva (12) and Varun (10), Anshu (9) were students of a private school, and, as was their wont, decided to get together and play the afternoon away.

After the others drowned, Anshu ran home to inform his parents. Locals called the police control room around 5.30pm, following which PCR vans and a police team of Bajghera police station reached the spot. National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force, fire department and civil defence volunteers were soon called and a rescue operation was launched. It took authorities six hours to recover the bodies.

On Monday, Anshu, the lone survivor, remained scarred by what he had witnessed. Though he accompanied his friends to the temporary water body, he had stayed away from the water because he’d had a fever the past five days, said his aunt Poonam Devi.

“He was too cold and unwell to step into the water. He survived, but is too traumatised by the sight of his friends dying, and had to be hospitalised for a night,” said Devi. “Throughout, he kept waking up and crying for his friends,” she said, adding they brought him back home on Monday.

Most of the boys, including siblings Durgesh and Ajit lived in lane number 5 of Shankar Vihar Colony. On Sunday, they went out to play in a nearby field where the incessant rain over the past few days had filled up pits and old wells with water, creating temporary ponds. Within minutes, Deva drowned in a 12-foot-deep pit. The rest jumped to their deaths in a bid to save him, said Suraj Singh, Ajit and Durgesh’s uncle.

The boys’ families recounted that the children had left in each other’s company, some of them leaving their meals half-eaten. “Piyush was eating lunch when his cousin, Varun (10), urged him to accompany the group. He stopped eating mid-way and ran, telling us that they were going to play at Varun’s,” said Piyush’s father, Sandeep Singh alias Sanju who owns a small cloth shop in the area.

Two hours after the children left, their families received the news of the accident from Anshu, who came home running, panicking and informing everyone he came across about the incident.

“He was crying and barely able to talk. He just kept repeating that his friends vanished into the water. He was begging us to save his friends,” said Sunil Kumar Ahirwal, Piyush’s uncle.

Initially, residents thought that the children fell in the slippery mud and hurt themselves, but started to really grasp the gravity of the situation when a hysterical Anshu “kept saying that he would never be able to see his friends again,” Ahirwal said.

When the parents of some of the children reached the spot, there were policemen at the spot, thanks to Anshu raising an alarm along his way back home. All that the parents found at the spot were the footwear and clothes of the dead children. “The children couldn’t gauge the depth of the water body,” said Ahirwal.

Sanjay Singh, Ajit and Durgesh’s father, said that he was supposed to take his family to Delhi for a community lunch, but when he reached home, his wife told him that the children had gone to play. “One of my neighbours asked me to accompany him to the water body because he heard someone from our lane had drowned. A security guard near the spot said one boy had drowned and six others had fled the spot but when we reached, I found the clothes of my both sons near the pond. I tried to enter the water, but they had already drowned. I could not believe my eyes when their bodies were recovered. I did not have the courage to inform my wife, who was waiting for me to return with our children,” he said.

On Monday, lane number five grieved for their children. While most residents mourned, a few blamed the authorities for their negligence. They said that despite the presence of seven wells and dug-up pits on the 18-acre land, the area remained accessible to all.

Balkishan Singh, Varun’s father, said there were no security guards or any written warning in the area. “No boundary wall was constructed around the water bodies and the area was dug up by the developer and contractors who used the mud for the construction of nearby projects. The open water bodies posed a constant threat to locals,” he said.

While the deaths left the entire neighbourhood in shock, locals said they were not surprised that the children were together in their last moments as well. “We have been living here for the last 15 years, like a close-knit family. The seven children’s bond brought our families closer together,” said Sher Singh, Rahul’s father.

Singh said that the group was known in the neighbourhood for always hanging out together. “They were thick as thieves. If Rahul’s mother cooked a special dish, he would urge her to cook for his friends as well. His friends did the same,” said Singh.

Families said they would fight until their last breath for justice and have demanded prompt action against M3M India private limited, the developer the land allegedly belongs to. Police on Monday registered an FIR against the director and founding chairman of M3M India.

Meanwhile, the developer condoled the children’s deaths and said they were not in possession of the said land. Adding that the incident took place due to the to heavy rain and clogging of water, an M3M India private limited spokesperson said, “Our deep condolences to the families of these children. We would like to clarify that M3M India is not in the possession of the said land and is not linked in any way with incident in the FIR against Basant Bansal, founder chairman of M3M India and Roop Bansal, director M3M India. The FIR is being defied.”