A five-year-old boy, missing since Friday night, is suspected to have fallen into a stormwater drain (SWD), triggering a massive search and rescue operation in Hale Guddadahalli on Tuesday. Over 75 workers who carry out intensive cleaning of SWDs and personnel from Fire and Emergency Services searched the drain. Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun visited the spot.
“There is no confirmation that the boy fell into a drain but we are checking nevertheless,” said a civic official.
The boy went missing on Friday night, but his mother, a single parent, lodged a complaint with the J.J. Nagar police on Monday after searching for him for two days.
CCTV footage shows the child Mohammed Zain, a resident of Arafat Nagar, going out around 11.30 p.m. with a nine-year-old girl, a neighbour, to dump garbage in an SWD nearby. However, the girl returned home alone.
“The girl is not sure if the boy fell into the drain. At one point, she said, ‘he fell down’,” a senior civic official said.
According to the police, it is highly probably that he fell into the drain.
“The drain is part of the Vrishabhavathi Valley. The next big junctions after the spot where he could have fallen is at Gali Anjaneya temple followed by Nayandahalli and Betamangala lake. The drain has been in spate due to the recent rains. Given the high toxicity of the discharge, which includes sewage, it is unlikely that we will find the body,” a senior civic official said.
BBMP officials allege that the chain link fence had been cut open so that residents could dump garbage in the drain.