A 13-year-old boy, Vikas Singh, tragically drowned after slipping into an open drain while walking to a playground near his home in Rajendra Park Extension, outer Delhi, on Friday afternoon. Police said Vikas, a Class 6 student, had just returned from school and was heading out to play around 3:45 pm when the accident occurred. Despite attempts by passersby to rescue him, the mud around the drain made it difficult to reach him in time.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the drain, which stretches nearly 2 km and is filled with waste, falls under the jurisdiction of the Public Works Department (PWD). Police have written to PWD and are set to file an FIR, with charges of death by negligence under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) likely to be invoked.
Vikas’s father works at a private firm in north Delhi, while his mother is a homemaker. The tragic incident has raised concerns about the safety of open drains in the area.