A JCB excavator pulled Mithun’s body out of an open drain in Southeast Delhi’s Jasola village at around 1.15 pm on Tuesday. He was 15. He had slipped into that drain on Saturday morning, chasing a kite thread a few steps from his house. The body has now been shifted to AIIMS Delhi, police sources said.

Mithun’s mother Anita Devi says her son “could have been saved”. “If the police had begun the search operation on Saturday itself then maybe it wouldn’t have reached this point,” she alleged.

For much of the three days in between, Mithun’s father says he searched for it himself. Awadesh cleans sewers for a living and has lived in Jasola for nearly 18 years. A video of him wading through the water, looking for his son, went viral on Monday. 

The recovery closes a search that Mithun’s family claims never seriously began. Over three days they claim to have watched five agencies – Delhi Police, the Delhi Fire Service, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, the National Disaster Response Force and the Boat Club – arrive at the drain and, in their account, manage to do little. 

One junior engineer has been suspended. The family says that is worth nothing to them.

The search

Mithun’s mother Anita Devi, who works as a domestic staffer, left for work at about 7.30 that Saturday morning. She had made him paranthas and left them out. His school shift began at noon, so she did not wake him. She called out that she would be back to take him.

He ate, went out, and spotted a loose kite thread that he pulled. He slipped and went into the open drain at around 11 am. A child nearby saw him go and started shouting: “Kalua gir gaya” – Kalua fell.

“His name was Mithun but we used to call him Kalua lovingly,” said Devender, Mithun’s uncle.

No adult family member was home except Mithun’s aunt Savita, who jumped into the knee-deep drain and tried to reach him. The current was too strong; someone pulled her out to stop her from being swept away too. Sarita Vihar police station and the Delhi Fire Service were informed by around noon. Two fire tenders were sent. The operation widened through the afternoon to include the NDRF, the DDMA and the Boat Club.

The NDRF, the family claims, reached the spot at about 4.40 pm on Saturday.

“They just kept poking around with a stick. How were they supposed to find him like that?” asked Awadesh. “They weren’t helping themselves, and they weren’t letting us help either,” said Mithun’s mother. 

The search was called off by the NDRF on Saturday evening because it had grown too dark. With no recovery by the end of the first day, the family and other residents of the area began a protest demanding a proper search.

Mithun’s uncle said an aide of the local MCD councillor assured them on Sunday that the boy would be found within 12 hours. But repeated calls found his phone switched off and the family restarted the protest, they claimed. JCB excavators reached the spot by Sunday, but the parents claim the actual digging did not start until Monday morning. 

The body was found on Tuesday afternoon.

Had the authorities searched properly on Saturday itself, the family says, Mithun might have been saved. His aunt now hopes for some form of compensation for a loss she called irreparable.

A life cut short

Mithun’s parents had not eaten for three days.

“Our child was very sharp at studies. In exams he always got 500 to 600 out of 800, he never got less than that,” his mother said. He was obedient, she said, and never argued with his teachers. She has three other children: sons in Class 11 and Class 3, and a daughter in Class 6.

His older brother pointed to the paintings taped to their room’s wall. Mithun loved drawing faces.

When the body was brought up, his mother begged to be allowed to see her son’s face.

The family wants the open drains of Jasola barricaded so that no other child goes in. With the body finally released to them, Mithun’s parents and siblings plan to leave for the last rites in their village in Budaun, Uttar Pradesh.

The official response

On Monday, MCD junior engineer Anuj Kumar was suspended, after Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta directed action against the officer responsible and expressed “strong displeasure and deep sorrow”.

Asked about it, Mithun’s father and uncle were dismissive: how does a suspension help them, they said, when it will not bring their child back.

Parvesh Agarwal, tehsildar of Kalkaji, said on Tuesday that time had gone into building an approach path and laying down earth before machines could work. On the family’s allegation of institutional delay, he said: “You have to figure out where the body is, so we tried one spot, then another. We are keeping the family’s convenience in mind too, and going forward we’ll take precautionary measures.”

Inspector Pramod Kumar of NDRF earlier told NDTV that after receiving information, they reached the spot around 2 pm on Saturday and tried both manual and mechanical means to search Mithun. He said that the search operation was difficult because of a strong current and that dense vegetation and debris made it difficult to navigate.  

While the National Green Tribunal has reiterated that drains are not covered to allow for regular cleaning, there are no clear rules on barricading.

DCP (South East) Vinit Kumar earlier told the media that the rescue operation is “ongoing without any delay” and will continue until the child is found. Newslaundry has sent questions to Kumar. This report will be updated when a response is received.

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