An eight-year-boy died after he fell into a pit dug in a DDA land in Outer Delhi’s Avantika area in Rohini. According to the police, Abdul Khalid,a Class V student of a private school, fell into the pit dug on the DDA owned land while he was playing a game of cricket with his friends on Tuesday.
Abdul’s maternal uncle, Mohammed Mumtaz, said the boy used to go out everyday to play cricket during his summer holidays.
“He would leave the house around 4 pm to play cricket with his friends. He would return around 7.15 pm, in time for iftar. But when he did not return home on Tuesday, we became anxious and started looking for him.”
He said Abdul’s father returned from work around 7 pm and inquired about his whereabouts from his wife.
“She is disabled and stays at home. He started looking for him and spoke to his friends and they told him about the incident,” Mumtaz said.
A senior police officer of the Rohini district said, “Abdul, after playing cricket, wanted to rinse his mud-splattered clothes in the pit of water when he slipped and fell into it.” The pit, nine to ten feet deep, had been dug for dumping leaves for decomposition, but had not covered, leading to rainwater collecting inside.
Police sources said that friends of Abdul Khalid allegedly saw him falling in the pit but were too scared to inform anyone about it and therefore rushed home.
Half an hour after the eight-year-old boy fell into the pit, locals spotted his body floating on the surface and thereafter informed his family. His family rushed Abdul to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead.
Police said they were informed about the incident around 8 pm. They inspected the spot where the boy had fallen and found that there was no signboard near the pit indicating that the area was out of bounds. There was no fencing around the pit either to indicate that it was a dangerous area. Angry locals said it was only after the incident that the DDA put up a board and a makeshift fence around the pit. Mumtaz said he had lost his nephew because of DDA’s “carelessness”. “What is the point of putting up a fence now when the damage has already been doneIJ There are three pits in the area that have been dug up for people to dump garbage. They are hazardous for anybody but the authorities are not bothered,” he said.
The body has been sent for a post-mortem and a case of death by negligence, the maximum punishment for which is a term of two years and a fine, has been registered at the Vijay Vihar police station. Abdul, whose father works at a bangle store in Sadar Bazar, lived with his parents and sister in Mangolpuri.