Missing toddler’s body found in drain in northeast Delhi

NEWDELHI: The body of a one-anda-half-year old girl who had gone missing from outside her house in northeast Delhi on Sunday was found inside an open drain on Monday, police said.

Ruling out any foul play in the death, a senior police officer said the girl appears to have accidentally fell into the drain while playing. The officer said the drain was under the EDMC, but no case in this connection with the death was registered.

Police said one-and-a-halfyear-old Aafiya lived with her parents and a sibling in Old Mustafabad. Her father runs a small shop in the same neighbourhood. According to the officer, the girl was playing with her friends outside the house around 7pm on Sunday when she went missing. Police were alerted, but the other children were unable to say where the girl went.

A missing complaint was registered at Gokalpuri police station. “We used sniffer dogs to search for the child, but the dogs did not lead us to the drain,” said an investigator not authorised to address the media.

No one in the search team suspected that the child may have fallen into the drain. It was only the next morning that someone noticed the body.

Police claimed that the child’s parents did not suspect any wrongdoing, but post-mortem was conducted before ruling out foul play. The parents alleged that the death occurred because the drain was left open.