A 15-year-old boy died after he drowned due to waterlogging in central Delhi's Chanakya Puri area on Friday. Police said the incident happened in the noon when it was raining heavily. The boy, Sourabh, lived with his family at the Vivekanand Camp in the same area, the police said.
"A 15-year-old boy died due to drowning in Delhi's Chanakyapuri area...This boy was playing and the flow of water was very fast. After going some distance, the body of the boy was found," the Delhi Police was quoted by ANI as saying.
Police told news agency PTI that Sourabh and some of his friends were playing in the rain on the waterlogged road near the British School when he accidentally ventured into deep water and drowned.
The boy's friends informed his family members about the incident. The family "immediately reached the spot, pulled him out of the water and rushed him to the hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival," the officials said.
The police said the body of the victim has been sent for postmortem and further investigations are underway.
Several cases of drowning and falling in open drains o Delhi streets have come to light ever since monsoon hit the national capital. On June 31, it was reported that a woman and a child had reportedly drowned in a drain in the Mayur Vihar Phase 3 area of East Delhi. A rescue operation was then launched to retrieve the bodies.
The Delhi High Court on August 22 pulled up the Delhi Development Authority's (DDA) over the death of a mother-son duo who fell into a waterlogged open drain in Delhi last month. The court noted that officials did not "supervise" the work done there by the contractor, who allegedly left certain portions of the drain uncovered.
A bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan also asked the DDA's counsel to seek instructions on payment of compensation to the victims' family before the next date of hearing on September 5.
