Hyderabad: In a tragic incident, a five-year-old boy died after he fell into an open manhole on Wednesday while returning home from a madrasa in Kalapathar.
The victim, Mustafa, fell into the manhole while he was trying to extract a slipper that had fallen in.
Md Mustafa was the younger son of Md Shareef, a trader residing at Dasharath Nagar under the Kalapathar police station limits.
On Wednesday, at around 12.30pm, he and his elder brother Md Saraaj (7) were returning home from a nearby madrasa after attending classes. When they reached Meraj Masjid, Mustafa’s slipper came off and fell into an open manhole on the road.
“He then tried to get into the hole to pull out his slipper but accidentally fell in and drowned. Saraaj raised an alarm and residents rushed to the spot. But there was nothing much they could do,” said Mr P. Sandeep Kumar, sub inspector of Kalapathar police station said.
Mustafa was swept away by the flowing water and some people entered another manhole a few metres away and pulled the boy out. However, he was declared brought dead when he was taken to a private hospital.
Police said that the actual depth of the drain could be around six feet, but due to accumulated silt, the depth would have been around two feet.
Residents meanwhile said that the manhole had been left open for the past two months for repairs and there were no signs or barricades erected at the spot.
A case of suspicious death has been registered by the police and the body was handed over to the family after post-mortem.
