New Delhi: A nine-year-old boy drowned after falling into an underground water tank at an under-construction site while playing last week. The building owner was arrested.The child, Shreyansh, was a Class IV student at MCD Primary Boys’ School and a resident of Tughlakabad village. His father reportedly runs a tea stall in the local market.On Wednesday afternoon, Shreyansh was on his way home from school around 1 pm with his 11-year-old sister when he wanted to play with two classmates, despite the sister’s objections, police said.To hide from his sister, the boy and one of his friends entered a construction site in Tughlakabad village.“Due to poor lighting, Shreyansh did not see the 7-foot-deep water tank and fell in,” said DCP (southeast) Hemant Tiwari.After one of his friends alerted the family, Shreyansh’s father rushed to the spot and managed to pull him out of the tank. He then administered CPR to his son and rushed him to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared him dead.A police officer said the construction site lacked safety measures. “There were no security guards to restrict entry, no barricades around or covering on the tank, and there were no warning signs to alert passers-by or children. The premises were also poorly lit,” the police officer said.The owner of the building under construction, Jagdish (60), is a resident of Tughlakabad village. A case was registered under Sections 290 (negligent conduct with respect to pulling down, repairing or constructing buildings) and 106 (causing death by negligence) of the BNS at Govindpuri police station.
