‘Death by negligence’ FIR in borewell death case; cops probe reason behind unsupervised spot

“Efforts are on to identify the deceased… People whose family members had gone missing over the past few months had arrived at the spot in hope to find their missing kin, but none of them could identify the deceased. All the missing reports lodged in the past few months are also being scanned,” said a senior police officer, adding that police are investigating how the deceased fell into the borewell, possibility of foul play, and why the borewell was left unsupervised.

“Walls of the borewell were broken, which is how the deceased would have possibly entered the spot… We had received a PCR call from the security guard at around 1:30 am on Sunday regarding a man falling into the borewell,” the officer added.

In an operation that lasted nearly 14 hours, the body of the man (who appeared to be aged between 25 and 30 years, as per police) was pulled out of the 12-ft diameter borewell on Sunday. The operation was led by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in cooperation with police and Delhi Fire Service.

First, two earthmovers were brought in to dig around the borewell, while another machine was deployed to dig a parallel pit, two-three feet away. Life detectors and cameras were also deployed inside the hole to check if the man was alive. Hours later, by 1 pm on Sunday, NDRF personnel dug 35 ft into the main pit and removed most of the soil. They then dropped a rope with metal hooks attached inside the hole to pull out the body.

“We hooked the man’s feet and shoulders to the rope and pulled him out,” said an official, who was part of the operation. At 3 pm, the body was wrapped in a plastic bag and sent to DDU Hospital in an ambulance stationed there; he was later declared dead.