The body of a seven year old boy was recovered from an open drain outside his residence in northwest Delhi’s Ashok Vihar area.

According to the police on Monday, the boy has been identified as Prince who was playing near his house on Sunday afternoon when he went missing. Deputy Commissioner of Police (northwest) Jitendra Meena said a search was conducted soon after the missing complaint was received on Sunday.

While the search was on, someone informed the police that Prince was seen playing near a drain which was not covered. The body was recovered from the drain the same evening, Meena said, the body has been handed over to his family after the port-mortem examination.

“We received a complaint in the afternoon that a child is missing and after filing a case, we tried to find him. When he was searched, we recovered his body from a drain near his house. We sent the body to the hospital after that and after doing the port-mortem examination, we handed over the body to the family. Already a missing complaint has been filed and through investigation, further action will be taken in the matter,” Meena said.

According to sources, the child was found lying in an open drain in Wazirpur Industrial Area on Sunday late evening amid his parents and the police searching for him. The police are trying to find out the truth by examining the footage of CCTV cameras installed around the drain.

Further, sources said that he went to defecate in the morning but did not return home. The family members searched for him for a long time but he was not found. After that the family informed the police.

The family of the deceased child are said to be laborers and the case comes within a month after three UPSC aspirants died in the basement of the coaching centre after it was flooded following incessant rain in Old Rajinder Nagar with repeated incidents of monsoon deaths in the city for the last several months since it hit Delhi.