45-year-old woman drowns in open drain in Andheri East, BMC orders inquiry

A 45-year-old woman drowned in an open drain in Andheri East during heavy rain. Officials called it "unfortunate" and ordered a probe into the incident

MUMBAI: A 45-year-old woman drowned after falling in an open drain while trying to cross the road at MIDC area in Andheri East during the heavy downpour on Wednesday evening. Municipal chief Bhushan Gagrani has called the incident “unfortunate” and ordered a probe.

45-year-old Vimal Gaikwad lost her life after falling into an overflowing nullah in the MIDC area of Andheri during heavy rains in Mumbai. (Raju Shinde/HT Photo)

The woman, Vimal Gaikwad, worked as a security guard in a company at SEEPZ industrial area and lived 15 minutes away, in Milind Nagar. She was the sole earning member of her family as her husband suffers from mental ailments and cannot work. Around 8.30pm, Gaikwad left her workplace and instead of walking home as she usually did, she decided to take a bus, as she did not want to wade through the waterlogged roads.

According to the MIDC police, Gaikwad climbed up the divider and while crossing the road, she slipped and fell in an open drain. “The woman could not see the open drain due to water logging,” said a police officer.

A rickshaw driver, who saw the woman fall in the open drain, informed the police through the emergency number 100. Police, fire brigade and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials reached the spot and after searching for an hour, were able to fish out the woman, around 50 feet away from the culvert. She was taken to Cooper Hospital where she was declared dead. The MIDC police have registered a case of accidental death.

Through the identity cards in her purse, the police called her neighbour Sangita Sivsharan and through her, contacted her husband Anil. Sivsharan, 25, who said she is more like a daughter to the childless couple, said she saw Anil roaming the vicinity around 8 pm looking for his wife who had not returned home. “I pacified him saying that she might have stayed back for overtime or must have been held up due to the heavy rains,” said Sivsharan. They began worrying around 10.30 pm, when they finally managed to connect with her phone but no one picked up.

“We were about to leave for her at her workplace when the police called us. I told the officer that since Anil was not mentally fit, as he had brain surgery a few years ago, he would not be able to understand the situation. The police then informed me that Gaikwad had died,” said Sivsharan.

Sivsharan and other neighbours of Gaikwad demanded that the MIDC police register a case against the BMC employees and the road contractor for negligence as they had left the drain open. “The contractor should be blacklisted and arrested for negligence,” she insisted.

BMC orders probe

Civic chief and administrator Gagrani on Thursday ordered a three-member inquiry into the incident. Devidas Kshirsagar, deputy commissioner of Zone-3 will chair the high-level inquiry committee. Chief Fire Officer Ravindra Ambulgekar and chief engineer (vigilance) Avinash Tambewagh are the other members of the committee. Gagrani has asked for a report within three days. A civic official from K east ward explained, “It was a cross culvert (a system where two drains run parallel and gets connected by a lid). There were covers on it, but one needs to ascertain if the cover came off on its own during the heavy rains or if it was removed,” he explained.

Flashback

The incident brought back dark memories from 2017 when Dr Deepak Amarapurkar, a gastroenterologist at Bombay Hospital, died after falling into a manhole near Prabhadevi during heavy rains in August. His body was found two days later near the seashore in Worli.