Case registered after labourer dies falling into manhole in Mumbai's Kurla area; BMC initiates inquiry

A 24-year-old labourer from Rajasthan died after falling into a 15-feet deep manhole in Kurla in Mumbai on Friday night. The incident reportedly took place around 10.30 pm, according to media reports. Dinesh Jatholiya was walking home in the Adarsh Nagar slums of Kurla (East) when he stepped on a manhole covered with plastic sheets with no sign board indicating so, reported  The Times of India. [caption id=“attachment_3965529” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of BMC building. Wikipedia[/caption] Hearing his screams, passers-by alerted the Nehru Nagar Police Station and the Fire Brigade. Jatholiya’s body was recovered on Saturday morning and was shifted to Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital at Sion for an autopsy, the report added. The Nehru Nagar police registered a case of negligence against unknown persons under Section 304 (A) of the Indian Penal Code. According to latest reports, the cops said that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has initiated a departmental inquiry on who was responsible for the manhole kept open. “We are depending on the BMC’s findings to come a conclusion,”  The Times of India quoted a police official as saying. A senior BMC official told  The Indian Express, “We are investigating as to who left the drain open and why. It is a box drain and was not supposed to be left uncovered. Once we investigate the matter, we will fix the responsibility and take necessary action.” The report also said that locals had been facing problems due to the open drain for several months. “There are several uncovered manholes in the area. After we had complained some of them were covered, however, few are still open. We had been complaining about this for a year,” local resident Aayaz Gawathe told The Indian Express.  Last week, the BMC told the Bombay High Court that it was ready for rains and that over 1,400 safety nets were installed on manholes in the city, reported The Free Press Journal.