2 siblings drown in muddy pond

Satinder Pal Singh

Dera Bassi, June 20

In a tragic incident, two siblings were drowned in a pond near a brick-kiln at Kheri Gujran village near Dera Bassi here on Wednesday.

The deceased have been identified as Aman (9) and Kartik (7), who belonged to Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh. The parents of the deceased were working at the brick-kiln site when the incident took place.

According to sources, the siblings drowned after they slipped into the “water catchment pond” while playing on Wednesday afternoon. The incident came to light when another child in the locality saw one of the victims floating on the water and raised the alarm.

A youth residing nearby entered the muddy water and brought the victims out. The two were rushed to the Civil Hospital, Dera Bassi, where doctors declared them brought dead.

The pond is located near the site of a brick-kiln. The rain that lashed the area a couple of days ago had led to water accumulation, said the sources. Though there was no eyewitness to the incident, it is suspected that the victims were playing and allegedly slipped into the 6-foot-deep pond and got trapped in its marshy bed.

Villagers thronged the site on learning about the incident. The Dera Bassi police also rushed to the spot.

It is learnt that prior to the incident, the victims’ parents knew that they were playing near the pond.

Sajeev Kumar, father of the victims, told the police that he had shifted to the brick-kiln site along with his three children and wife only on Tuesday. Earlier, he was working at a brick-kiln in Jaula Kalan village near Lalru. Terming the incident an accident, the family said it did not want a case to be registered.

On a request, the bodies of the victims were handed over to their family without a postmortem. The police said the autopsy was not conducted as no foul play was suspected.