Assam Firm Director, 2 Others Arrested For Boy's Death After Falling In Drain

The director of a private firm and two of its employees were arrested on Friday for alleged negligence at its under-construction flyover site in Guwahati, where a 3-year-old boy died, a police officer said.

Sunit Kumar had died after falling into an uncovered drain at the construction site of the flyover in Arya Nagar area of the city on Wednesday.

"We had received a complaint from the boy's father, accusing Bhartia Infra Projects Ltd (BIPL) of negligence, leading to his son's death. We held consultations with the Public Works Department (PWD) as it is a civil project, as part of our investigation, and arrested three persons," the officer said.

The BIPL was given the contract for constructing the flyover.

"BIPL director Avinash Bhartia, safety engineer Kaushik Gogoi and deputy project manager Prasannajit Pathak have been arrested. This incident happened primarily due to their negligence," he said.

The officer said more arrests could be made in the case, with CCTV footage showing several uncovered manholes and drains in the area.

He also said that another incident of a worker dying after being electrocuted and falling about 500 metres from the construction site had been reported recently.

"We had filed a case in the previous incident, too. We are now not considering it an accidental death after Wednesday's incident," the officer added.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had on Thursday directed Chief Secretary Ravi Kota to ensure a satellite survey of all open manholes and uncovered drains in Guwahati, and said necessary action will be taken to cover those. 

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