Four-year-old girl drowns in metro pit

Mumbai: A four-year-old girl allegedly drowned in a pit dug for the metro near Goregaon’s Oberoi mall Sunday evening. While the family claimed that the police refused to lodge a complaint, the Vanrai police has refuted such claims saying that an accidental death report (ADR) was already registered and that nobody came forward with any complaint.

The deceased girl was identified as Sheetal Mishra, who stayed inside a makeshift tent near Oberoi mall. Her father Karan told The Asian Age that he sold knick-knacks at the signal and barely made enough to sustain the family.

“Sunday evening, I came back at around 6pm and asked Sheetal’s whereabouts. Her mother said she had gone to a shop. When I checked there, she was not to be seen. While I was looking around, I found her body floating inside the pit that has been dug for the ongoing metro. We rushed her to a nearby hospital but she was declared dead on arrival,” he said.

Sheetal’s parents said that the girl had died due to negligence on the part of the site contractor of the metro as the pit had no barricading. They said that the police came to the hospital and registered an ADR on the basis of facts. Karan said, “When we sought to register a complaint, the officials did not entertain us. They also said that my family and a few others staying in temporary tents, were staying there illegally and that they would evict us from there if we lodged any complaint.”

The police however said that it did not turn down any complaint. Vinay Rathod, deputy commissioner of police, zone twelve, said, “The parents can come anytime with the complaint and we would register it. The claims are unfounded and they were never threatened. We will take down their complaint whenever they approach us.”