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.

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........

© newslaundry