Gujarat: Three drown as woman jumps into 15-ft-deep pit to save son, nephew in Valsad

A 35-year-old woman died after she jumped into a water-filled pit to save her son and nephew from drowning in Gujarat’s Valsad district, fire department officials said Saturday.

The bodies of the woman and the two minors have been fished out of the 15-foot-deep pit that was dug by a contractor for the Western Railway authorities for an ongoing work to lay a rail track, they added.

According to the police, the cousins, Raj and Kartik, both aged 10, were playing near a building adjacent to the pit at Balitha village in Vapi taluka of Valsad district Friday evening. The boys allegedly jumped into the water for a swim but began to drown. A security guard, Kalicharan Gujjar, of the M Cube building, spotted the minors and raised an alarm.

Hearing the cries, Raj’s mother, Sushila, rushed to the spot. The woman, local residents said, jumped into the pit to save her son and Kartik, but the three drowned.

The Vapi Nagar Palika fire department officials and Vapi town police personnel rushed to the spot and the three bodies were later fished out of the water. The bodies, officials said, have been sent to a government hospital for post-mortem.

Raj’s father, Babubhai Rathod, who works as a security guard at a restaurant in Mumbai, has submitted a complaint to the Vapi town police following which an offence has been registered under IPC section 304 for culpable homicide not amounting to murder against unknown persons and initiated a probe.

Vapi town police inspector B J Sarvaiya said, “Work to lay a track near an existing one was in progress and the pit — 500 metre long, 15 feet deep and 15 feet wide — was dug a few days back by a contractor of the Western Railway for a stormwater drainage system. The cement blocks, which were to be laid into the pit, were also stacked nearby. The work at the site was in progress. The contractor should have put fencing on the outer periphery of the pit and fixed sign boards, or should have deployed a guard to ensure people did not go near to the spot. We have registered an offence on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and are try to find out who was responsible for the lapses.”