Boy's death after falling into borewell in MP: Farm owner held, booked for culpable homicide

Rewa (MP): Police have arrested the owner of an agricultural field in Madhya Pradesh's Rewa district where a six-year-old boy died after falling into a borewell, an official said on Tuesday.

The farm owner has been booked on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, he said.

The boy, Mayank Kol, fell into the open borewell located at the field in Manika village on Friday afternoon.

He was pulled out dead on Sunday after a 45-hour long operation, bringing a gloomy end to a multi-agency rescue operation.

Brijendra Mishra, the owner of the agricultural field where the borewell was dug and left open, was arrested on Monday, Superintendent of Police Vivek Singh said.

After a probe into the incident, Mishra was booked under Indian Penal Code sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 174 (non-attendance in obedience to an order from public servant), he said.

The probe indicated the borewell was dug up two-three years back and it was found to be dry, but Mishra left it as it is without covering it, he said.

In February this year, the panchayat department issued orders regarding the closure of such unused and open borewells due to accidents and children falling into them, the official said.

After the incident in Rewa, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav ordered suspension of two senior officials from Janpad Teonthar for alleged negligence.

Yadav had also appealed to people to keep borewells covered to avoid such incidents in future.

In March 2023, an 8-year-old boy fell into a 60-foot-deep borewell in the state's Vidisha district. He was rescued after 24 hours but could not survive.

In a similar incident last December, a four-year-old girl was rescued from a borewell in Rajgarh district of the state but died in a hospital within a few hours.