The parents of six-year-old Sahil were overjoyed to see their son go to school on the first day yesterday, but within an hour their lives were thrown into sorrow as they received the news that their child had been found dead in a well behind the school premises.
The tragedy took place at DB Nimbalkar English Medium School in Mohan Nagar, Chinchwad, at 12.30 pm yesterday.
Sahil
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Toilet break
“Sahil was a Std I student and his father is a tempo driver,” school trustee Ayush Nimbalkar said. “It was Sahil’s first day in school. On Monday, Sahil’s parents came to the school to drop him. When the class was on, Sahil took permission from the teacher to go for a toilet break.”
He said that after stepping out of the classroom, Sahil went towards the rear of the school and a woman attendant saw him running out of the school premises. Nimbalkar said moments later a person named Ganesh Daundkar (22) came running to the school and told the school officials that a boy had fallen down a well.
Tragic: Six-year-old Sahil; the police investigate the mishap at the well behind DB Nimbalkar school in Chinchwad yesterday. Pic/Navnath Kaple
“I along with other female faculty members immediately reached the spot, but we could not go into the well as no one knew how to swim,” Nimbalkar said. “We alerted the fire brigade.” Fire brigade officials later brought Sahil out of the well, but he was declared dead after he was taken to hospital.
Nimbalkar said the school had a dedicated toilet for children and it was incomprehensible why Sahil should have gone towards the well. “The well is very far from the school and nobody from the school goes there,” Nimbalkar said.
Senior Police Inspector Mohan Vidhate of the Pimpri police station said the well belonged to a person named Kalbhor.
“We are investigating how the child ended up at the well despite toilet facilities being available on the school premises for the kids,” Vidhate said.
Negligence alleged
The officer said the family of the child alleged that negligence on the part of the school had cost Sahil his life. “We spoke to Daundkar, who first alerted the school about the tragedy, and he told us that he saw Sahil falling down the well and tried to save him, but as he also did not know swimming he went to the school and alerted the people there about the incident,” Vidhate said.
Some parents of children in the school alleged that there was no security guard at the school and a few days ago 12 computers had been stolen from there. Sunil Vetal, a relative of the deceased child, blamed the school for the tragedy.
“Our question is how the child went towards the well when class was on,” he said. He said the family would file a police complaint against the school.u00a0
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