Rain-related incidents claimed four lives in Mumbai on Wednesday, with the city receiving 242.2 mm rainfall, the second highest in a decade.
The body of a six-year-old boy was recovered from a drain in Evershine city, Vasai (East), five hours after he fell into an open gutter on Wednesday evening. According to the Tulinj police, Abubakr Khan, a resident of Santosh Bhavan locality, was playing with his three-year-old sister opposite Banaras Hotel near Khan Chowk in Nallasopara (East) when he slipped into a drain and got carried away by the water. Assistant police inspector Shashikant Avghade said, “There was waterlogging in the area and Abubakr did not notice the gutter. Another young boy who saw him fall raised an alarm.”
Mr. Avghade said the police reached the spot soon after they were alerted. “We started a search around 5.15 p.m. with help of locals. Waterlogged streets and unrelenting rain made it difficult to navigate roads. Around 9.45 p.m., an officer told us that a body had been found in a drain in Evershine city,” he said. The police confirmed the boy’s identity, and a post-mortem examination confirmed that Abubakr died due to drowning.
“The authorities will now start playing the blame game but it is not going to get our child back. Open gutters claiming lives during the monsoon is not new. In spite of the regularity of such accidents, nothing is being done about the problem,” Abubakr’s father, Mohammed Ansar, said.
Vasai-Virar Municipal Commissioner Baliram Pawar said the matter is being looked into. “The work of covering open gutters was undertaken before the onset of the monsoon. Whether the gutter was uncovered or the cover shifted due to water pressure is being investigated,” he said.
Swimmer missing
One person drowned while another was feared drowned in Mithi river on Wednesday.
In the first incident, four swimmers jumped into the river from a bridge near Kalanagar junction, Bandra Kurla Complex, at 5 p.m. Three of them swam across, while one went missing. Mohammed Arshad Taufiq Qureshi (25) and his friends, Babu Suleiman Ahmed Shaikh (43), Raja Submani Harijan (41) and Shankar Pawankumar Karmarkar (35), often went swimming in the river.
Officers of the Dharavi fire brigade and the Navy’s rescue team were at the spot and search operations were called off on Thursday evening. A missing person’s report was registered at the Shahunagar police station. “The man is feared drowned,” said senior police inspector Vilas Gangwane.
The second incident was reported at Bandra, when 24-year-old Mohammed Shahrukh Shakeel Shaikh jumped off the bridge at 3.45 p.m. Shaikh, a resident of Gyaneshwar Nagar, Bandra (East) was with his friends, Arshad Parvez Shaikh (23) and Mohammed Asim Khan (18), when he got off the motorcycle and jumped into the river for no apparent reason. His friends tried to save him, but failed to do so. The BKC police were informed and the fire brigade recovered the body. His friends are reported to be safe. “The man was brought dead to Sion hospital at 7.50 p.m.,” said Dr. Vaibhav Deshmukh, its CMO.
On Wednesday morning, two labourers from the P South ward office’s solid waste management department, who were on duty at separate locations died around 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. respectively. “One fainted in front of a tea seller who raised an alarm, and the labourer was taken to hospital. We later found out that it was a case of cardiac arrest. The other labourer had ventured into Shrirang Sable Marg, which was heavily flooded. He was found on the road,” said Chanda Jadhav, the assistant municipal commissioner.
The labourers, identified as Vijayendra Bagdi (36) and Jagdish Parmar (54), died of drowning heart attack respectively, said Dr. Prakash Himgire, from Siddhartha Hospital, where both autopsies were conducted.
Building collapses
Around 3.45 p.m. on Thursday, the third and fourth floors of Parekh Sadan at Opera House collapsed. The empty building was being demolished as it is slated for redevelopment. No casualty was reported.
