45-year-old falls into open drain, dies

A 45-year-old man fell to his death inside an open stormwater drain in east Delhi’s Mayur Vihar area on Sunday evening. The victim, businessman Anil Kumar Gupta, had gone to a nearby park for an evening walk. His family claimed the hospital authorities’ timely action could have saved his life.

The unfortunate incident took place around 4.30 pm. After a stroll, Gupta had just stepped out of the district park, a few 100 metres from his house, when he slipped and fell into the drain. A local juice vendor and a fruit-seller, with the help of some passersby, pulled him out.

“I was passing through the area. I saw that he was fine after being pulled out,” passerby Pradeep Kaushik said. Gupta was then rushed to the Malik Nursing Home, where doctors denied him treatment. They even refused to put him on a stretcher. He was then rushed to the Metro hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

Residents claimed the drain, coming under the Public Works Department (PWD), has been open at many points for years, and that they had complained about it several times but all in vain.

“What hurts us is the fact that a civic issue, for which residents …read more