Man dies after falling into borewell: Who owned the plot? Cops to quiz DJB, Metro engineers

Police have also re-started their exercise to identify the victim after analysing all missing persons’ reports on ZIPNET. Police had tried to identify the victim soon after the accident on March 10. When they couldn’t, the body was cremated.

“We had issued a notice to both the Delhi Metro and the Delhi Jal Board regarding the ownership of the land on which the borewell exists. The DJB submitted a memorandum, saying the land belongs to the Delhi Metro and thus they are responsible for the accident,” an officer privy to the investigation said. “In its response, the Delhi Metro said that while the land belonged to them, it was under DJB’s use because they are running a water treatment plant on it.”

The officer said that police have now summoned the engineers of both Delhi Metro and DJB to answer questions and clarify their stand. After this, a chargesheet will be filed. “We have summoned the engineers… We want to know when this piece of land was leased to the DJB, when the DJB built its sewage treatment plant on it, who were the employees present inside the premises at the time of the accident, and who was responsible for supervising the borewell,” the officer said.

Police have also begun scanning through ZIPNET for any report regarding missing persons across Delhi to ascertain the victim’s identity. “We know he was a young man… in his 20s,” the officer said.

On March 10, at 1.30 am, the Police Control Room received a call from the security guard of the water treatment plant saying a man had accidentally fallen into the borewell. Subsequently, a joint operation by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Delhi Fire Service (DFS) and Delhi Police was launched to rescue him. Fourteen hours later, they pulled his body; he was dead.

Police had said the borewell’s walls were broken which was why the deceased man fell in.