Men push 3 children in drain, one dies

New Delhi, Apr 17 : In a barbaric act, three unidentified men pushed three kids into a drain in Pitampura in Northwest Delhi Friday after the children refused to get water from their drinking binge.

A 11-year-old boy was killed and an eight-year-old boy is still critical while the third child survived the poisonous gas in the drain. The accused men managed to escape from the spot, but police have registered a case.

The incident was reported near MU block of Pitampura in northwest Delhi and the boy, who died, has been identified as Rubiyan while the other two are Sonu and Arjun, 15. This area — also known as Double Tank Road — has been notorious for its toxic smell and people usually avoid it as sewage lines from four different areas converge here.

Police officials said that the three boys were returning home in Jehangirpuri, outer Delhi, after collecting scrap.

''According to Arjun, the three of them went to the MU block park looking for scrap when three strangers called out for them. They were consuming liquor and asked the boys to fetch water for them. But the boys refused, and they caught hold of them and started beating them up and then pushed them into a nearby sewer,'' said an investigating officer.

The police, however, are clueless and do not know how the three boys reached the spot.

Eyewitnesses said that the boys fell unconscious as they tried to come out. A constable, Vijay Singh, from the Maurya Enclave police station rushed to their rescue but, too, fell unconscious.
Another two constables, Anil Kumar and Ram Prakash, posted at a DMRC police post in Rohini, tried to pull out the children but met the same fate.

Finally N S Bundela, DCP (northwest) rushed to the area with a back-up force and rescued the kids. The children were rushed to Ambedkar Hospital in Rohini, where doctors declared Rubiyan brought dead.