HYDERABAD: In a heart wrenching incident, an unsuspecting 12-year-old girl who was riding a bicycle died when she fell into an open nala overflowing with rain water in Neredmet police station limits.
The girl went missing on Thursday. When she did not return home, her parents searched for her and later lodged a complaint with the police. On Friday, the police and the GHMC staff found her body in Banda Lake in Deendayalanagar, Naredmet.
The girl has been identified as Sumedha Kaparia, a resident of Kakatiyangar in Neredmet. According to police, Sumedha used to ride her bicycle in the evenings in her locality. On Thursday too, she went out on her bicycle but did not return home for long.
At around 7.30 pm., her parents Sukanya and Abhijit started searching for her as they could not contact the girl on her mobile phone. They then decided to approach the police.
The police, along with the GHMC staff, found her bicycle near a nala and assuming that she may have slipped into the nala, they began searching for her at all possible places. On Friday, they found her body in Banda Lake. After the parents identified her, the police sent her body for a post-mortem examination.
A distraught father, Abhijit said: “There is no protection to anyone near nalas. My daughter died because the nalas are not safe. This is sheer negligence by officials. I do not want a tragedy of this nature to befall anyone.”
There is a history of people losing their lives due to uncovered nalas. In September 2018, Hareesh, a 24-year-old resident of Saroornagar, died after he slipped into an open nala. In September 2019, Rakibul Sheikh, a resident of Nizampet, fell into an open nala and was later found dead at Pragathinagar lake. In April 2019, two-year-old Divya fell into open nala. Fortunately, fire services staff managed to rescue the girl.