A man died after he reportedly fell into a 40-foot-deep borewell on a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) premises in the Keshopur Mandi area of the Capital on Sunday, prompting the police to launch a probe, with Water Minister Atishi saying there might be some foul play behind the incident.
During a visit to the site, the Minister said the police should investigate whether the unidentified man, seemed to be in his late 20s, was pushed into the one-foot-wide borewell by someone as the room where it is situated was found locked by the rescue team.
She added that the DJB premises was handed over in 2020 to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), which is constructing a metro station nearby.
The DMRC in a statement said “The pump room inside which this borewell was located belongs to the DJB. The borewell was already installed inside that pump room when the DMRC took over the area around it for construction work,” it said.
Ms. Atishi has also ordered Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to conduct a time-bound investigation and take exemplary action against any officer found guilty of abandoning the borewell without properly sealing it.
She told the officer that all abandoned borewells on private and government land be sealed and a compliance report be sent to her within 48 hours.
Rescue mission
The police said they had received a call around 1 a.m. that a man has fallen into the borewell. The identity of the caller is yet to be established. A police officer said it might be possible that the man entered the room with the intention of stealing something. He said they are also probing the case from the murder angle.
DCP (West) Vichatra Veer said the body was recovered around 3.30 p.m. after a 14-hour-long rescue mission involving the National Disaster Response Force and the Department of Delhi Fire Services. The rescue team dug a parallel borewell to rescue him.
