Hyderabad: For two-and-a-half-year-old Nama Shiva Rachith and his parents, Children’s Day was a day of mourning and not celebration.
Nama Shiva attended Bachpan Play School located at RK Nagar in Malkajgiri. On Tuesday he was found to have drowned in the underground water sump located within the school’s premises.
No one was aware of the tragedy until Shiva’s mother Vishala went to pick him up from the school.
“When I asked them to send my child out, they said he had not come to the school. My husband, I and his friends searched the premises and found my child drowned in the sump,” Vishala said.
Police said the school management was negligent in leaving the sump open when filling water.
A case of death due to negligence has been booked against the school.
Shiva Rachith was the younger son of Anil Kumar and Vishala, residing in RK Nagar. Bachpan’s nursery school is just 400 metres from his home.
On Tuesday morning, as usual Anil dropped his son at the school gate and waited till he had entered the building.
Police examine CCTV footage
Around 11.25 am, Vishala came to pick him up. The school insisted he had not come on that day. Vishala called her husband who came with some of his friends but they were stopped from entering the school.
After an argument with the school staff, they all entered the school and started searching. They found Shiva’s school bag in the classroom and showed it to the staff.
“That is when they allowed us to search the campus and someone checked the sump and found my child floating in the sump full of water. Till my husband’s friends came to the school, the staff did not allow me even to talk and spoke rudely to me,” Vishala claimed.
It was found that the sump is usually closed, but when the water is released it is kept open.
They are examining the CCTV cameras installed in the campus. “Based on the evidence, we will take action on the management,” inspector Janaki Reddy said.
