A 10-year-old boy drowned in a pit made to store cow dung in Dahanukar Wadi area of Kandivali (W) while chasing a kite that had been cut off during the Makar Sankranti celebrations on Thursday evening. The boy, identified as Durvesh Jadhav, entered a cowshed and stepped on the five-foot cow dung pit to get the kite, but fell into it and died.
The Kandivali Police registered an accidental death report (ADR) in the matter and will be investigate the matter closely.
According to police sources, Jadhav, a resident of an SRA Building in Kandivali, was looking out of his window during the Makar Sankranti celebrations. When he noticed a kite had cut off from the string, he ran behind it to catch it. In the bid, Jadhav entered a cowshed premises through a gap in the door, and stood on a gutter-pit made of cow dung.
"Jadhav was focusing on the kite while chasing it and didn't realise it was a gutter, following which he fell inside. A man saw Jadhav drowning from his seventh floor window and rushed to his rescue, which took about seven minutes, but Jadhav had drowned by then. The youth also fell twice in a bid to rescue him, but to no avail," said Babasaheb Salunkhe, senior inspector of Kandivali police station.
A crane was brought in from a nearby construction site and Jadhav was taken out of the pit. He was declared dead on the spot due to suffocation and drowning, said police. A senior police officer said that an ADR has been registered and during investigation if the cowshed owner is found guilty, police will register a case of negligence against him accordingly.
