Boy drowns in drain during rain, residents allege official laxity

Hyderabad: A four-year-old boy drowned after falling into an open drain abutting his apartment in the NRI Colony of Bachupally during the incessant rain on Tuesday morning, with residents alleging official apathy over the drain overflow.

The body of the victim, Shamala Mithun Reddy, a nursery student was fished out from the Turka Cheruvu in Pragathinagar, located around three kilometres from his residence, on Tuesday evening, the police said.

The boy allegedly slipped and fell into the rain while stepping out of the apartment to play. Bachupally police registered a case under Section 174 of the CrPC for further investigation.

According to the information provided, Mithun was the youngest child of Santosh Reddy and Divya, residents of Spatial Gardenia Apartments. Santosh was at work and Divya was busy with household chores when the boy was playing with his elder sister, Sharanya, and their neighbours around 11.20 am.

When they did not see him for some time, Divya assumed that Mithun had gone to the house of their relative, K. Satti Reddy, who stays in a neighbouring flat. When he did not return till 1.30 pm, she raised the alarm, following which residents reviewed the CCTV footage, in which Mithun could be seen falling into the drain.

The drain, which is around three feet wide and six feet deep, was sealed by cement slabs which, residents said, were displaced due to heavy water flow from upstream areas

Immediately, police were alerted and the information was passed to all stations and check posts abutting the drain, till the Turka Cheruvu. Expert swimmers were called in, but they could not search the lake due to heavy water flow. Later, DRF teams were called.

N. Prakash Reddy,  director of EV&DM (enforcement vigilance and disaster management), said that two teams were despatched in boats for the search operation at the request of the Nizampet municipal commissioner. Mithun’s body was found after more than three hours.

After a post-mortem examination, the body was handed over to the family, who started travelling to their native place in Atmakur S mandal of Suryapet district to perform the last rites.

While Mithun’s parents were in shock, their relative Satti Reddy waited with bated breath at the Turka Cheruvu, hoping to see him alive. “He was playing at our home just before he went missing,” Satti Reddy told Deccan Chronicle, holding Mithun’s body in his arms after it was recovered.

Residents claimed that due to the increased construction activity upstream, water outlets were blocked and the entire rainwater accumulated in this nala, which is narrow. Two months ago, civic authorities reviewed the nala and assured that they would take up expansion works, but nothing happened, they said.