Drowning case: Contractor and supervisor in charge of cleaning drain to be booked for negligence

Adihan Parvez Tamboli.

THE MUMBAI Police will register an FIR against the contractor and supervisor in charge of cleaning a drain in the Cheetah Camp area of Chembur, where a three-year-old boy drowned on Thursday.

The local Trombay police will also probe if there was any negligence on part of anyone from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) that led to the incident. Adihan Parvez Tamboli, a Beed resident, who was staying at his maternal grandmother’s residence fell in the drain on Thursday morning. By the time he was pulled out and taken to a hospital, he died.

Senior Inspector of Trombay police station Sunil Gaokar said, “We are in the process of registering an FIR against the contractor and supervisor in charge of cleaning the drain in which the the boy fell. The case will be registered under section 304 (A) (causing death due to negligence) of the Indian Penal Code. If we find that any BMC official was also complicit in the negligence, then his/her name will be added to the FIR.” The senior inspector said during the investigation over the past two days they found that while the stormwater drain had been covered initially, it was the force of water which flowed out of the drain that pushed it of its grid.

“The drain had not been cleaned before the monsoon and hence the water was flowing out from one end. Had the drain been cleaned as part of monsoon preparedness activity undertaken by the BMC, the incident could have been avoided,” the officer said. However, another officer claimed that at several points in the area, there were encroachment at several drainage spots, which made it difficult to have a proper disposal system.

Tamboli, who resides with his parents in Beed, had come to the city with his pregnant mother to his maternal grandmother’s place a few months ago. Tamboli’s father Parvez is an engineer by profession.