Two-year-old boy dies after falling into drainage pit in Ghaziabad

According to the victim’s family, he was playing outside his house at Sudamapuri around 11am but went missing.

A two-year-old boy slipped and died inside an open temporary drainage pit at a private plot of land in Sudamapuri locality of Vijay Nagar, Ghaziabad, on Wednesday morning. The police said that the boy’s family filed a complaint about the incident, but requested them to not conduct an autopsy.

The drainage pit into which a two-year-old boy fell and died, at Sudamapuri colony, Ghaziabad, on Wednesday, September 18, 2019. (Sakib Ali / HT Photo)

According to the victim’s family, he was playing outside his house at Sudamapuri around 11am but went missing. His father Mohammad Ahad, who until last month worked as a data entry operator with a call centre in Noida, was at home and went out in search of the boy after he could not be found.

“We were sitting outside our house and he was playing nearby, but he went missing after a while. After searching for 10-15 minutes, we realised that there was an open pit constructed on a private plot of land, barely 10-15 feet away from our house. I asked my son to look for him there,” Mohammad Yunus, the boy’s grandfather, said.

When the family and locals reached the plot of land, they could not see anything initially, except a heap of garbage floating atop dirty water in the pit.

“The pit had been filled up with dirty water for the past couple of months. In the heap of garbage floating on the water, we first noticed the child’s legs. He was lying upside down and we pulled him up. We rushed him to a hospital where he was declared dead. He was my youngest child, I have two daughters, aged four and seven. I lost my job last month and was looking for another job. So I was at home on Wednesday. The pit had been constructed by our neighbour and is about 8-9 foot deep,” Mohammad Ahad, the boy’s father, said.

“The pit had been dug up last year by the plot owner, who stays at Biharipura. We had asked him to get it filled up but he did not take any action despite assuring us he would. After the rainy season, the pit got filled up with water and garbage. A couple of months ago, two goats had also died after falling in. We have given a police complaint but have requested them not to conduct an autopsy. The police said that they cannot do much if the autopsy is not conducted,” he added

The corporation officials, on the other hand, said that the corporation could not do much as the sewer pit was dug up on private land.

“The family can approach the police and lodge a complaint at the most. Since the pit was dug in a private plot of land, the corporation cannot do much about it,” Pramod Kumar, additional municipal commissioner, said.

The family filed the police complaint at Vijay Nagar police station on Wednesday evening.

“They have not named anyone, but have stated the entire incident. We will now investigate their complaint and check the plot where the pit was constructed,” Shyamvir Singh, SHO of Vijay Nagar police station, said.