The body of a man who fell into a 40-foot-deep borewell at a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) sewage treatment plant here was pulled out after a nearly 14-hour-long operation carried out by teams of NDRF and Delhi Fire Services, police said.
The victim is yet to be identified, they said.
Information about the man falling into the borewell at the DJB plant in west Delhi’s Keshopur Mandi area was received around 1 am. The rescue efforts were led by teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the Delhi Fire Services (DFS), police said, adding the NDRF team arrived at 4 am.
Sources said the borewell was abandoned.
Chief Miinister Arvind Kejriwal shared the news of the man’s death in a post on X and thanked the NDRF for its operation.
“Got the sad news that the man who fell into the borewell was found dead. May his soul rest in peace. I would like to thank NDRF whose team made every possible effort during the 14-hour-long operation. The NDRF has supported the people of Delhi in all difficult times,” he said on X.
दुःखद सूचना मिली कि बोरवेल में गिरने वाले पुरुष को मृत पाया गया। ईश्वर उनकी आत्मा को शांति दे।
मैं NDRF का धन्यवाद करना चाहता हूँ, जिनकी टीम ने 14 घण्टे रेस्क्यू ऑपरेशन में हर संभव प्रयास किया। NDRF ने हर मुश्किल की घड़ी में दिल्ली वालों का साथ दिया है। https://t.co/EFFJsVXKDd
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) March 10, 2024
Earlier in the day, Kejriwal said the DJB has been instructed to carry out a probe into the incident and warned of strict action against officers found responsible for it. He also said that all abandoned borewells, government and private, would be sealed within 48 hours.
A senior police officer said the borewell pipe was 12 inches in diameter and 40-foot-deep. ‘So we informed the Delhi Fire Services,’ the officer said, adding police received a call by a security guard at the site.
The guard told police that somebody entered the site and fell into the borewell. According to the sources, the call to police said that a “thief had fallen into the borewell”.
Police sources suspect him to be a vagabond but they have also not ruled out the possibility of him entering site with the intentions of stealing something. A team of NDRF comprising 40 members reached the site at 4 am, they said.
“NDRF decided to dig a parallel borewell. Some NDRF personnel started digging while others were trying to rescue the trapped man from the borewell,” another police officer said.