Nine-yr-old girl in Ggn falls to death in sewer

Gurugram: A nine-year-old girl died in Sohna area in the outskirts of Gurugram after falling into a nine-feet-deep sewer line that had dug up by a private real estate company.

Police said the incident occurred at Dhanola village in Sohna when Rita and her neighbour 11-year-old Sumit were returning home from tuition on Saturday evening.

As the wide gaps on the road for construction were not marked by the company, the two children could not see it and fell into the deep hole.

Once rescuers arrived, their work was made more difficult because of the rainwater that had filled the hole.

By the end, the two children were rescued, Rita was found to have suffocated to death, while Sumit is in a critical condition at a Gururgam hospital.

"I had an intuition that something wrong may have happened to my daughter after there was panic among the villagers that a young boy and the girl had drowned in the sewer line.

"When I reached the spot, I saw my daughter in the lifeless state. I realised that she was no more," said the girl's inconsolable father.

Sources said that work was being carried out in the area to enhance the drainage system in BPL (below the poverty line) colony, which has been undertaken by the private developer.

Meanwhile, residents of the area held a protest on Sunday against the gross negligence by the company, after which a case was registered at Sohna police station under Section 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

Realising that its negligence caused the loss of young life, the developer has now placed caution boards near the spot.

However, residents are far from impressed by the action. "Despite repeated complaints and accidents, the company did not take notice of the danger that was lurking around to these holes. And now, they have taken a preventive action when a life is lost," said Ramesh, a resident of Dhanola.

In May, a 52-year-old security guard Shambunath Bharti also died after falling in a 10-feet-deep drain.

Father of two daughters and a son, Bharti succumbed after sustaining internal injuries in his neck and nose.