Firm director, 2 employees arrested over child’s death at flyover site

Guwahati: Director of a private firm and two of its employees were arrested on Friday for alleged negligence at an under-construction flyover site in Guwahati, where a three-year-old boy died after falling into an uncovered drain.The victim, Sunit Kumar, fell into an open drain while playing near the construction site in the Arya Nagar area of the city on Wednesday. The incident occurred in Kalapahar, where the child had accompanied his parents on an outing.As no one witnessed the fall, his parents searched the neighbourhood for hours. It was only after residents reviewed CCTV footage that they discovered the boy had fallen into the drain. He was eventually pulled out and rushed to a private hospital in Athgaon, where doctors declared him brought dead.“We received a complaint from the boy’s father, accusing Bhartia Infra Projects Ltd (BIPL) of negligence, leading to his son’s death. We held consultations with the PWD as it is a civil project, as part of our investigation, and arrested three persons,” Padmanabh Baruah, DCP (west), said. The BIPL was given the contract for constructing the flyover.Those arrested include BIPL director Avinash Bhartia, safety engineer Kaushik Gogoi, and deputy project manager Prasannajit Pathak.“This incident occurred primarily due to their negligence,” DCP said, adding that more arrests could be made in the case. CCTV footage from the area revealed several uncovered manholes and drains near the site.DCP Baruah also referenced a previous incident in which a worker died after being electrocuted and falling nearly 500 metres from the same construction zone. “We filed a case in that incident as well. In light of Wednesday’s tragedy, we are no longer treating it as an accidental death,” he said.In response to the incident, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday directed chief secretary Ravi Kota to conduct a satellite survey of all open manholes and uncovered drains in Guwahati. He assured that necessary action would be taken to cover them and prevent further tragedies.