3 brothers drown in open trench along Mithi river

MUMBAI: Three pre-teen brothers — two twins and one of another pair of twins — drowned on Tuesday afternoon in a deep ditch dug along the Mithi river at Kapadia Nagar in Kurla (W) while trying to retrieve a cricket ball.
A civic contractor, Shyam Narayan, had got three trenches dug to store water for building safety walls along the Mithi. The Kurla police have booked him and unnamed MMRDA officials under section 304(A) of the IPC (causing death by negligence) for not following safety measures and properly barricading the deadly ditches.
Around 12.30 pm, two sets of twins from a family that lives in Kalina Dongar in Santa Cruz were playing cricket on the strip of land between the Mithi and the trenches when the ball rolled into one. “One of the four brothers stepped into the trench to take it out but slipped. Seeing him drowning, two other brothers jumped in to save him but they too drowned,” said deputy commissioner of police (Zone V) Dhananjay Kulkarni. Abdul Rahim Chaudhari and Abdul Karim, both 8, and Abdul Aziz, 12, died.
As the three thrashed about in the water and screamed for help, Abdul Aziz’s twin, Abdul Haq, ran home to inform their parents. “It was too late. Before the victims’ parents could reach the spot, the three children had drowned. We received information from locals around 1pm. Police and fire brigade teams rushed to the spot and fished out the three bodies by 2pm,” said Kulkarni.
Anger rose in the area as news of the tragedy spread. Local residents pelted stones and smashed the windshield of a JCB parked near the trench. Police calmed them before the situation went out of control.
Abdul Aziz was a class six student while Abdul Rahim and Abdul Karim were in class three of a civic school. Their mother was inconsolable when she and her husband, Abdulla Chaudhari, came to Bhabha Hospital to take the siblings’ bodies.
Abdul Haq, who witnessed his three brothers dying, was in shock and kept saying he was not at the place where the mishap took place. “Abdul Haq is the witness in the case. He is in shock and was unable to properly describe the incident,” said Kurla police inspector R D Jadhav.
Abdulla Chaudhari, a daily wage labourer, stays with his wife and children, all twins, in a slum in Kalina.