VASCO: In a tragic incident, two students drowned in a pit filled with rainwater behind Mahalaxmi Marble in Zorint, Zuarinagar of Sancoale village on Saturday afternoon.
According the information, a group of five boys from Zorint-Zuarinagar slums had gone to play in the pit filled with rainwater inside an industrial plot in Sancoale IDC. Locals said of the five, two boys Rohit Pandey (8) and Sameer Malbari (11) drowned in the pit while playing. The other boys ran away from the site after the incident.
“The boys, who were usually playing in the area, were not aware of the fact that due to continuous rain the rain water, which was at their knee for a couple of days, had increased by about 10 feet. Hence when they went to play in the water both Rohit and Sameer drowned,” said a local resident.
The incident came to light when the mothers of Rohit Pandey and Sameer Malbari started searching for their kids in the locality. After a lot of effort, Rohit’s mother learned her son was last seen playing near the pit along with other local boys. She therefore raised the alarm and locals launched a search in the area. Finally one of the locals decided to jump inside the pit and he managed to recover the bodies from the pit.
For a while, rumours swirled that there were a few more boys who were playing with the victims and they were missing. This created panic in the area with locals searching for the missing boys in nooks and crannies of the area. Responding quickly to the situation, a social worker Girish Pillai alerted the police for help and locals started hunting for the missing boys even in the pits. However, it was later discovered the missing boys were safe in their respective homes.
“We received the call at 3.03 pm from the Verna police that two boys drowned in a pit and there were a few more bodies in the pit. We rushed to the site and started search operations by throwing hook in the waters but found nothing. Later it was confirmed by locals the missing boys had reached their homes safely and we aborted the operations,” said Dilip Bicholkar, fire officer from Vasco fire station.
Meanwhile raising serious concerns over the pit being left open by the concerned industrial plot owner, social worker Girish Pillai said, “We have decided to lodge a police complaint against the plot owner for negligence due to which two minors lost their lives. If he had properly barricade or fenced his plot such incident would have not happened.”
Verna police have registered the case as an unnatural death and further investigations are in progress.
