NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has registered a case of causing death by negligence after a man died by falling into a 40-feet deep borewell in west Delhi’s Keshopur area late on Sunday night.
“An FIR under section 304A of the IPC has been registered in Vikaspuri police station in this matter. Further investigation will be taken up,” DCP (west) Vichitra Veer said, adding the deceased is yet to be identified. The unknown man had died after falling into a 40-feet-deep and 1.5-feet-wide borewell pit located inside a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) water treatment facility in the Keshopur Mandi area.
Rescue efforts, that streched for over eight hours and employed various tactics to rescue the man from the borewell, bore no fruit. A team of National Disaster Response Force personnel reached the scene on Sunday morning, and following deliberations, they planned to recober the man by digging another parallel borewell.
After 13 hours of rescue operations, the personnel managed to recover the body of the man. He was taken to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him dead upon arrival.
Authorities awaken?
Following the tragedy at a DJB facility in Keshopur Mandi, the civic authority will issue a set of new guidelines on the management of borewells, including improvment of sealing measures to avoid similar accidents, sources privy to the developments said on Monday.
Despite reports that the borewell that caused the death of the 30-year-old had been abandoned, officials said it had been secured and locked.
Teams formed by the DJB are also inspecting all its borewells to prevent any such accidents in the future, sources added.
“The borewell was well secured; it was locked as well. To avoid such incidents in the future, all other borewells are being inspected. Some guidelines will be issued to those managing the borewells as well. Some of these guidelines are in place, but fresh ones will also be issued to manage and seal these borewells better,” a DJB official said.
In light of the accident, Water minister Atishi directed Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to seal all borewells in the city within 48 hours.
In her letter to the chief secretary, the minister said, “A deeply unfortunate incident has taken place where someone has fallen into an abandoned borewell in the Keshopur Sewage Treatment Plant. While this borewell was on land that had been handed over to Delhi Metro in 2020, it is our responsibility to examine if any lapses have taken place on the part of Delhi Jal Board, and to ensure that no such incident takes place in Delhi in the future.”
She further wrote, “Chief Secretary is hereby directed to conduct a time-bound enquiry into the incident and take strong and exemplary action against any officers found responsible and ensure that all government and private abandoned borewells are welded and sealed immediately and compliance reported to me within 48 hours.”
According to last year’s National Crime Records Bureau data, 14 people had lost their lives due to manhole accidents, while two fatalities were reported from falling into pits.