17 October,2026 07:34 PM IST | Palghar | mid-day online correspondent
Waliv police station has registered a case of accidental death and launched an investigation into the incident. Representational Pic/File
A two-year-old boy died after accidentally falling into a nine-foot-deep open drain while playing outside his house in Maharashtra's Palghar district, police said on Saturday, reported the PTI.
The incident occurred on Thursday in Vihar Colony in Vasai East, where the toddler, identified as Ankush Shahdev Turiya, was playing near a chawl with other children, a police official said.
Local youths pulled the child out of the drain, which carries water from the Tungareshwar Hills and the Golani Naka industrial area, the news agency reported.
After the child was rescued, his father rushed him to a civic health centre for treatment. However, doctors declared him dead, the official said, according to the PTI.
The incident has raised concerns over the danger posed by the open drain in the residential area, sources said.
Waliv police station has registered a case of accidental death and launched an investigation into the incident.
Sub-inspector Pravin Jagtap said the police were investigating the circumstances surrounding the toddler's death.
In a similar incident in June this year, a two-year-old boy died after he fell into a nearly three-foot-deep trench filled with rainwater and sewage in Maharashtra's Pune district.
Police had later booked the contractor in connection with the matter, the officials had earlier said.
Police had said that the incident occurred on June 30, at Kadamwak Wasti in the Loni gram panchayat area, as per PTI.
According to police, the trench had been dug alongside a drain to facilitate the flow of rainwater; as a result, rainwater and sewage had accumulated in it.
The toddler, who lived in a nearby settlement, accidentally fell into it while playing, said officials.
Hours after realising that the toddler had been missing, his parents began searching for him. Subsequently, his body was recovered from the trench.
Emergency services and the police had also reached the spot.
A case was registered against the contractor for alleged negligence in failing to provide adequate safety measures at the site, said officials, adding that further investigation is underway.
(with PTI inputs)
