Nashik: Seven-year-old dies after falling into six-ft deep pit

NASHIK: A seven-year-old boy, identified as Akshay Pandit Sathe, drowned after falling into a six-foot rainwater-filled pit on Wednesday morning.
The boy was in the water for about 45 minutes, before a construction worker, while clearing rainwater, spotted him lying motionless at the bottom of the pit.
Akshay, a Class I student of a local school run by the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC), was a resident of Sant Kabir Nagar, which is a densely-populated slum in the Gangapur Road area.The pit in which he fell, was dug up on a plot belonging to another resident of the same slum. The plot owner, a woman, wanted to construct a pucca house there. The incessant rain in the city over the past one week had filled the pit with rainwater.
Akshay's aunt Sangeeta Chavan said on Wednesday, the boy's father dropped him at school at 8am. "Akshay was asked by the school officials to fetch his Aadhaar card from home. On his way home, the boy decided to take a shortcut - which passed through the woman's plot. We think as the boy was in a hurry, he failed to notice the pit and fell in it," said the inconsolable aunt.
When the school got over at 9.15am, Sangeeta's son Suraj, who studies in Class III in the same school, returned home and asked about Akshay as he had left his bag in the school.
Akshay's father, Pandit Sathe, a road worker, was at home with his sister at that time. "We rushed to the school, but could not find Akshay there. We returned and started looking for him in the slum, however, he was still untraceable," said Sangeeta.
In the meantime, Adik Shaikh, a worker, started removing rainwater from the pit. When he stepped inside the pit, he sensed something heavy lying at the bottom. By this time, Pandit and Sangeeta also reached the spot looking for Akshay. "I lowered myself into the pit and found the boy there. I raised an alarm and other slum dwellers rushed to the spot," said Shaikh who took a motionless Akshay out of the pit.
Bharat Kataria, a resident, took Akshay to a nearby private hospital in his autorickshaw. After examination, the doctors there asked the family to take Akshay to the Nashik Civil Hospital, where he was declared 'brought dead". Akshay his survived by his parents and two siblings.
After the mishap, some slum dwellers demanded that the plot owner should barricade the dug-up area. "My three-year-old niece had fallen in the same pit yesterday. Fortunately, my elder daughter was with her and she took the child out," said Sangeeta.
The Gangapur police have summoned the plot owner for questioning. "The woman who owns the plot where the pit was dug, should have barricaded the area to prevent mishaps. We will register an offence against the plot owner," said Anchal Mudgal, the senior inspector at Gangapur police station. Police have already recorded Shaikh's statement.
Meanwhile, the education department of the Nashik Municipal Corporation has slapped a show-cause notice on school principal Kailas Thakre and Akshay's class teacher Manda Bagul, demanding an explanation on why the boy was out of the premises during school hours. Officials from the civic administration said further action would be decided on once the duo gave their explanation.