Three-year-old falls in boiling water, dies

A three-year-old boy died after he fell into boiling water that was left in the open in a large wok. HT reports.

A three-year-old boy died after he fell into boiling water that was left in the open in a large wok.

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The incident took on place on Thursday morning in the Jhilmil cluster of east Delhi's Vivek Vihar area.

Saurabh, the victim, had accompanied his mother and six-year-old brother to the home of an acquaintance in the area.

"He was playing with his brother. While running, he fell into the large wok that was kept on a gas burner. Local residents immediately rushed to the spot and took him out. He was taken to a nearby hospital but later succumbed to burn injuries," a senior police officer said.

The child suffered severe burn injuries and after battling for life for over 24 hours, he died on Friday.

The victim's father Vijay, 29, is a daily wage labourer and the family lived in one of the slum clusters in Jhilmil area.

The police have identified the sweetshop owner who had been boiling the water out in the open. A case of negligence has been registered against him. "He will be arrested soon," the officer added.

The locals staged a protest after the incident and demanded that the sweetshop owner, Dev Shankar Sharma, be put behind bars as he was responsible for the death of the boy.

"We had asked him several times not to boil water in the open. But he never listened to us. Instead, he would threaten us. The police should take strict action against him," Kishan, a resident of the area said.

Police said that the Sharma was currently absconding and teams have been sent to his possible hideouts.