Mumbai: A 10-year-old boy drowned after entering an excavated pit filled with water in Andheri (West) on Monday afternoon. The boy was with two other children for a swim. His body was recovered by a National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team after a nearly three-and-a-half-hour search operation.The incident was reported at 1.15 pm at the Wireless Compound in Juhu Gully, behind Jagrut Hanuman Temple in D N Nagar. According to the Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB), two to three children from a nearby slum went to the water body to swim when one of them disappeared underwater.Fire brigade personnel reached the spot and began a search operation. Teams from the police, the NDRF and a 108 ambulance service were also mobilised. Rescue personnel searched the water body for several hours before the NDRF located and retrieved the boy at 4.52 pm.He was taken to Cooper Hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead, officials said. The deceased was identified as Dinesh Baswaraj Harichand (10).Police officials said they are investigating how the children gained access to it. They are also probing the circumstances that led to the drowning.Civic officials repeatedly appealed to parents to ensure children do not venture into excavated pits, ponds, quarries and other water bodies, where water levels rise sharply during the monsoon, making them particularly dangerous even for those who know how to swim. Former corporator Mohsin Haider alleged there were inadequate safety precautions at the construction site. “There should have been a boundary wall indicating that no one is allowed beyond a certain point, which wasn’t the case. The security staff should have alerted if the children went inside the site where work was going on. This is a very tragic event, and the local community is completely shaken,” said Haider, demanding that the boy’s family be provided with compensation.The deceased lost his father two years ago, locals at the site said. “His mother works as a household worker, and the entire family is broken and distraught at losing the child,” said Haider.Further investigation into the incident is under way.
