New Delhi: A nine-year-old boy drowned in a 10-foot deep pit filled with rainwater when he was playing cricket with three other friends in a DDA park located at Avantika, Rohini, on Tuesday evening. He fell into the pit while trying to retrieve a ball.
After Abdul Khalid fell into a pit while trying to retrieve a ball during the cricket match he was playing with other friends, his friends were too scared to tell anybody about it. They went back home, leaving Abdul behind in the ditch.
By the time his distraught family had found him, Abdul was dead. The family feared something was wrong when the boy did not return home for iftar — when the day’s fast for Ramzan is broken — three hours after he had left home.
A senior official of the DDA, when contacted, said he was unaware of the incident. “If there is any incident, then he will take requisite action against concerned concerned person or contractor,” the official said.
Abdul’s maternal uncle, Mohammed Mumtaz, said the boy went out to play with his friends as usual like everyday.
“He would leave the house around 4 pm to play cricket with his friends. He would return around 7.15 pm, by time for iftar. But when he did not return till 8 pm, we started looking for him and went to his friend’s house,” Mr Mumtaz told.
He said Abdul’s father returned from work around 7 pm and inquired about his whereabouts from his wife. “She is disabled and stays at home. He started looking for him and spoke to his friends and they told him about the incident,” Mumtaz said.
During the match, the cricket ball fell into the pit. Abdul, in an attempt to retrieve the ball from the pit, slipped and fell into it, a senior police officer said. The pit, nine to ten feet deep, had been dug for dumping leaves for decomposition, but had not covered, leading to rainwater collecting inside, the police said.
There was no fencing around the pit to indicate that it was a dangerous area. Locals said it was only after the incident that the DDA put up a board and a makeshift fence around the pit.
