Surat: Two five-year-old children were found unconscious in a car parked near their residence in Dindoli area of the city on Monday evening. They were declared dead during treatment at a hospital. The boys had gone missing in the afternoon.
Helish Mahesh Rupawala and Viraj Nikhil Jariwala were found unconscious in the car at around 5.30pm. The children lived in neighbouring houses and were friends. They were spotted in the car by some other children. Soon their parents, who had been searching for them, were alerted. They shifted the children to a hospital where they were declared dead.
Preliminary medical examination revealed that the children had died of suffocation. Police suspect that the children fell unconscious after entering the car which was not locked. Police are yet to find out if the car’s doors got locked after the children entered it or they were pushed inside it by someone.
“We are investigating how exactly the incident had happened. The children had died of suffocation. We will question the car’s owner to find out technical details about the vehicle and other information that we are looking for,” said police.
The children went missing at around 12.30pm when they went to buy snacks from a shop. Their parents started searching for them when they did return for a while. Their photos and details were shared on social media and police were also alerted but the children were found in the car.
Helish’s father is employed in a zari making unit while Viraj’s father works in the accounts department of a textile unit in Surat.