The Municipal Corporation of Delhi on Monday suspended an officer citing “dereliction of duty” after a 15-year-old boy was feared to have drowned in an open drain in southeast Delhi’s Jasola.
Rescue teams have continued their search for him for the second day, with a video showing his father also entering the drain in a bid to find him. In the video, the father is seen sifting through pieces of garbage and throwing them aside while searching for his son. The National Disaster Response Force also joined the operation. “The team tried its best to trace the boy by using all their equipment but the boy could not be found.
Despite a nearly 36-hour search, the boy was not found till Sunday, police said. The 15-year-old was trying to catch a kite when he accidentally slipped and fell into the open drain, according to preliminary inquiry. The boy was identified as a Class 8 student at a local government-run school, and lived in the area with his family. Officials from the Delhi Fire Services said two fire tenders along with a rescue team were sent to the spot after the fire control room was informed about the incident at 11.54 am on Saturday.
Due to darkness the operation was called off on Saturday night,” the DCP said.
“Since the flow of water in the drain was very fast, the boy could not be traced,” deputy commissioner of police (southeast) Vineet Kumar said. The drain was initially believed to be under the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), but agency officials said that it had been handed over to Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for maintenance, according to an earlier HT report . The teenager fell into the drain on Saturday last week while he was trying to catch a kite. The incident took place just before noon on Saturday. The search was called off late Saturday and resumed on Sunday, with rescue teams and divers also deployed.
