Protest in Fatehgarh Sahib as 3 siblings drown in pit

Our Correspondent

Fatehgarh Sahib, July 22

Three brothers drowned in a pit filled with rainwater at Khoje Majra village here on Sunday night.

The deceased have been identified as Jasanpreet Singh (12), Jobanpreet Singh (11) and Lovepreet Singh (8), all students of Khoje Majra village government school.

Parents of the deceased children accompanied by relatives and hundreds of supporters on Monday refused to take the bodies and blocked the traffic on the Sirhind-Chandigarh road in front of the DC office. They were demanding the registration of a case and the arrest of those responsible for the death of their children.

On the statement of Nirmal Singh, father of the deceased, the police have registered a case under section 304A of the IPC against Parminder Singh, owner of the land where the pit was dug up, his younger brother Sikandar Singh and village sarpanch Amrinder Singh, alias Lalli. The police have also arrested Parminder Singh. The kin of the deceased were, however, protesting that the case should be registered under Section 304 instead of 304A.

As per information, four children were playing in a ground adjoining to 5 acres of field belonging to Parminder. To save his paddy crop that was submerged in rainwater, Parminder had dug up a pit in the nearby ground. The children while playing slipped into it and drowned. However, there was another boy, who was saved by the villagers.

The father of the deceased, who runs an electronic repair shop at Sirhind, said he got a call from his wife Charanjit Kaur that their children slipped into a pit and drowned. He said his children died due to negligence on the part of the land owners and the village sarpanch. “All culprits should be booked as they dug up the pit without permission and did not make any safety arrangements there,” the father added.

Later, the family of the deceased was persuaded by the police and the postmortem of the bodies was conducted by a team of doctors. Following which, the bodies were handed over to the family and cremated in the evening.

When contacted, SSP Amneet Kondal said an FIR had been registered and the investigation was on in the case.