Pune: A heartbreaking incident occurred in Ghorpadi, where a nine-year-old boy lost his life after falling into a water-filled pit near an under-construction railway flyover. The tragic discovery was made on Saturday evening (March 29) when the child’s body was found submerged in the excavation site.
The victim, identified as Krish Subhash Angarkar (9), was a resident of Khan Road near Gurudwara in the Pune Cantonment area. A Class 4 student at a local school in Ghorpadi, Krish was expected to meet his elder brother after school on Friday so they could return home together. However, when he failed to arrive, his brother went home alone.
As Krish did not return home, his anxious family began searching for him, checking with his school friends and nearby areas. Despite their efforts, he remained missing. On Saturday afternoon, they reported his disappearance at Wanowrie Police Station. Since his brother’s school falls under Mundhwa Police’s jurisdiction, both Wanowrie and Mundhwa police teams launched a coordinated search operation.
Acting on a tip from local children, police suspected that Krish might have fallen into a waterlogged pit at the flyover construction site. Responding to the lead, fire brigade personnel and police arrived at the location around 5:30 PM. Using motor pumps, they drained the water for over an hour before recovering Krish’s lifeless body. He was immediately taken to a hospital, but doctors pronounced him dead on arrival, citing drowning as the cause of death.
Authorities noted that the excavation area was enclosed with iron barricades around five to six feet high, but a one-foot gap at the bottom remained open. It is believed that Krish, possibly out of curiosity, crawled through the gap and accidentally fell into the pit while peering inside.
The sight of Krish’s floating schoolbag and books devastated his grieving parents. Following the incident, police inspected the construction site and held the contractor responsible for negligence. On Sunday, a case of culpable homicide was registered against the contractor at Mundhwa Police Station, according to Senior Inspector Neelkanth Jagtap.
The incident has raised serious concerns over safety measures at construction sites, with demands for stricter regulations to prevent such tragedies in the future.
