On birthday, 4-yr-old falls into 68-ft deep pit; her fate unknown

A four-year-old girl's birthday celebrations turned into a nightmare on Wednesday when she fell into a 68-feet-deep borewell in Khoh village in Manesar.

A four-year-old girl's birthday celebrations turned into a nightmare on Wednesday when she fell into a 68-feet-deep borewell in Khoh village in Manesar.

The army and National Security Guard (NSG) personnel have been pressed into service to rescue the child, along with a team from the Gurgaon Rapid MetroRail.

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The victim, Mahi Upadhyay, slipped into the 1.5-feet-wide pit in a vacant plot opposite to her house at 11.10pm. Her cries for help were heard for half-an-hour, said the victim’s relatives. A CCTV camera was lowered into the pit but it did not provide any clue. The fate of the child remained unknown till late evening on Thursday.

According to locals, the pit has been lying unattended for over a month. An associate of the plot owner, however, claimed that it had been covered but someone removed the lid.

The victim's father Neeraj is a security supervisor who had shifted to Manesar two-and-a-half years ago. "Mahi was playing with her friends in an auto parked outside the house and her mother was seeing off relatives after the birthday party. As she disembarked and ran towards home, she slipped into the pit that was just a feet away from the vehicle," he said.

An army team from the Delhi Cantt joined the rescue operation at 6am. Precious time was lost as the city police and health department officials could insert only an oxygen pipe into the pit only after five hours.

As the army team started digging a parallel pit with the help of a JCB machine, a DMRC team reached the spot around 4pm with an automatic drilling machine that dug at a speed of 10 feet in 15 minutes.

A magisterial probe has been ordered into the mishap.