2-year-old and his 3-year-old sister drown in 3-ft tank

NEW DELHI: A brother and sister aged 2 and 3, respectively, drowned in a tank barely three feet deep. The incident took place in south Delhi’s Fatehpur Beri when the children had gone out to play with friends who live in the same locality.
Police said the incident came to light when they got a call from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences trauma centre informing them about the death of these two children, identified as Prateek and Srishti.

They were first spotted by one of the locals from the area who found them unconscious in the water and alerted their parents, who rushed them to AIIMS where they were declared brought dead.

According to police, the siblings lived just a few meters away and had gone to play with a few friends in a vacant plot nearby. After their friends had left, they continued to play but mysteriously fell into an open tank in which residents put water for their cattle.

They were both unconscious when found by the local and had died by the time they were taken to the hospital. Police said that during preliminary enquiry, it has been revealed that both the children drowned in a 'haudi' - where water is stored to feed cattle.

The tank had a depth of around three feet. A case under section 304 (A) (causing death due to negligence) of the IPC has been registered at the Fatehpur Beri police station and investigations in the matter have al so been taken up. The father of the victims, Bablu stated that he suspects some foul play about how the childre n got into the haudi.

"My children were small and obviously did not have the height to climb up the tank. It should be investigated that how did t hey get there," said the father.

Bablu, who works as a labourer, had gone to work when he received the call, informing him about the incident.

"I reached the spot and then went to the hospital where I came to know about the death of my children. The children were with me one hour before the incident as I had given them food. I never knew this is what I would come back home to," said the grieving father.