Body of child swept away in drain recovered after rescue operation

Giridih, Sep 21 (PTI) The body of the two-year-old boy, which was swept away in a drain in Jharkhand's Giridih district, was recovered on Sunday from near a pond, police said.

Giridih Superintendent of Police (SP), Vimal Kumar, told PTI that the child, identified as Ankush Thakur, son of Deepak Thakur, a resident of Mangrodih in Giridih, had come along with his family for shopping near Gandhi Chowk on Saturday evening.

"As per the statement of the mother of the child, they were walking on the side of the drain, and the child slipped into the drain and was swept away in the strong current due to rain. The administration deployed JCB machines (excavators) to pull away the drain covers and started a search operation, which continued till late at night," the police officer said.

The search operation was again resumed in the morning, and finally, at around noon, the body was found at a field near the Dakitand pond in Giridih, nearly five kilometres from the spot where the child slipped into the drain, after 16 hours of the rescue operation.

"We have sent the body of the child for post-mortem at Giridih Sadar Hospital," the police officer added.

Giridih municipal commissioner Prashant Layek, however, expressed surprise at the child slipping into the drain.

"It was a covered drain, and the police and we have scanned the CCTV footage to see if the child had actually slipped into the drain. However, we could not see anything," said Layek.

The family members claimed that they had gone shopping near the Gandhi Chowk, and the child was playing and somehow slipped into the drain and was swept away in the current of water due to rain. PTI ANB RG