Delhi biker fell into pit. Official, passers-by saw. Why no help came for hours
Twenty-five-year-old Kamal Dhyani fell into a pit with his bike. Some saw it, but did not act. Police offered no meaningful help, his family claims. Negligence and indifference cost a young man his life.
For nearly eight hours, 25-year-old Kamal Dhyani lay at the bottom of an unguarded 20-foot-deep pit in West Delhi after accidentally falling in while returning home -- unaided and ultimately dead. Some people saw the biker plunge into the open trench, the contractor was informed and reached the spot, yet chose not to act. No emergency call was made, no rescue attempt was mounted, and no immediate help arrived. By the time his family found him the next morning, it was too late.
Kamal Dhyani, a private bank employee returning home in the national capital, fell into a 15-to-20-foot-deep pit dug for sewer work by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) in Janakpuri. There were no barricades. No reflectors. No warning boards. No lighting.
He fell into the pit around 12 am on Friday, just after a final call to a friend saying he would reach home in a few minutes. By the time police were alerted, and his family found the body at around 8 am, Kamal was dead.
According to senior cop Darade Sharad Bhaskar, an eyewitness who was returning from a wedding saw a bike falling into the pit. He informed the guard nearby, who then told a labourer, Yogesh.
“The labourer looked inside and saw the motorcycle’s headlight on and a human figure lying inside,” the officer said.
Yogesh then informed the contractor, Rajesh Prajapati. Rajesh came to the spot in his car within 5-20 minutes. He found out that a motorcycle had fallen there. And then, nothing. He did not make a call to the police or emergency services. There was no PCR call. No ambulance summoned. No attempt to pull the man out.
Both Rajesh Kumar Prajapati and Yogesh has been arrested today. Yogesh had escaped to Etawah soon after the incident but was tracked down and arrested there.
Yogesh was working as a labourer on the Delhi Jal Board project and had been living in a tent barely 10 feet away from the open pit. When the security guard informed Yogesh, he stepped out, looked into the ditch, and saw a motorcycle lying inside. He then informed the sub-contractor, Rajesh Prajapati.
“We will arrest everyone involved in this incident,” the DCP said. “Whoever is responsible will be booked. The CCTV footage is being analysed thoroughly.”
NO MEANINGFUL HELP FROM POLICE
But it is not just public apathy and indifference that are in the dock here. The police are another culprit.
Even as Kamal lay in the pit through the night, his family was searching for him. Kamal’s twin brother, Karan Dhyani, said they visited multiple police stations -- Dabri, Vikaspuri and Sagarpur -- while searching for him during the night. They did not receive meaningful assistance, he alleged.
Karan said he was given his brother’s last known location, after which he began searching for him.
“When I went to the police, they shared a location and said this was where he was last seen. I have been searching here, near this park,” he said.
“It has been more than 24 hours since my brother's death, and the police are still saying they are looking for cameras,” the brother, angry and bereaved, said.
Police said they checked medico-legal case records and the bike’s registration number at Vikaspuri and analysed mobile location data before the matter finally converged at Janakpuri police station.
NEGLIGENCE AT ITS PEAK
This was not merely an accident. It is clear negligence, repeating and often going unpunished until it claims lives. Similar to the recent case of a Noida techie who drowned in a water-filled basement, waiting for help for four hours.
A deep pit in Janakpuri, one may say, was in the middle of a public road and did not have any barricades or warning signs — a glaring civic lapse.
“This is clear carelessness. The barricade has now been put up. There was nothing,” the brother added. His friends and locals said the same, and even the First Information Report (FIR) says so.
The deep pit, dug by the Jal Board contractor, was left open “without any protective measures”. “There was no barricading, no warning sign or security guard deployed at the site despite the pit being dug in the middle of the road,” the FIR noted.
Local residents also said barricades and debris appeared only after Kamal’s death.
“This is not a one-day issue. After the boy died, they suddenly remembered to put up barricades,” said Jaspreet Singh, a Janakpuri resident. “There were no signs or barricading earlier. Whatever has been installed now was done in a hurry after the incident.”
He alleged that open pits and construction debris had been lying on the stretch for nearly four months, forcing commuters and even schoolchildren to take longer routes.
Another resident told India Today that he himself fell into one of the pits at the spot. “They have not done anything here. You can see there, soil accumulated in front of that flat. I myself have fallen there once. At least they should have put up some lights,” he said.
Advocate Astha Chaturvedi, representing the victim’s family, called it “complete carelessness.”
“The pit was not covered properly, nor was any barricading placed around it to warn commuters. There were no warning signs, reflectors or lighting at the site,” she said. “The Delhi Jal Board showed complete carelessness.”
MERE SUSPENSIONS ENOUGH?
On Friday, the Delhi government suspended three DJB officials -- an executive engineer, an assistant engineer and a junior engineer. A case has been filed under charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (Section 105) against the contractor and concerned officials.
But for Kamal’s brother, friends and family, suspensions are not enough.
“No one can compensate for my loss. I only want my parents to get support and my brother to get justice quickly,” Karan said.
“We don’t want sympathy, we want justice,” said his friend Altaf. “The suspension of officers should not be just for show. Take the strictest possible action. Do whatever you need to do, but don’t lie.”
He added that Kamal had already suffered personal tragedies in recent years. “This accident, falling into this pit, which caused Kamal’s death, should never happen again.”
Kamal Dhyani’s death on Friday, after he fell into an open, unbarricaded pit in a poorly lit area of the national capital, is not merely another statistic in a long list of civic failures. It is a testament to how indifference, negligence and delayed action can converge with deadly consequences.
For nearly eight hours, 25-year-old Kamal Dhyani lay at the bottom of an unguarded 20-foot-deep pit in West Delhi after accidentally falling in while returning home -- unaided and ultimately dead. Some people saw the biker plunge into the open trench, the contractor was informed and reached the spot, yet chose not to act. No emergency call was made, no rescue attempt was mounted, and no immediate help arrived. By the time his family found him the next morning, it was too late.
Kamal Dhyani, a private bank employee returning home in the national capital, fell into a 15-to-20-foot-deep pit dug for sewer work by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) in Janakpuri. There were no barricades. No reflectors. No warning boards. No lighting.
He fell into the pit around 12 am on Friday, just after a final call to a friend saying he would reach home in a few minutes. By the time police were alerted, and his family found the body at around 8 am, Kamal was dead.
According to senior cop Darade Sharad Bhaskar, an eyewitness who was returning from a wedding saw a bike falling into the pit. He informed the guard nearby, who then told a labourer, Yogesh.
“The labourer looked inside and saw the motorcycle’s headlight on and a human figure lying inside,” the officer said.
Yogesh then informed the contractor, Rajesh Prajapati. Rajesh came to the spot in his car within 5-20 minutes. He found out that a motorcycle had fallen there. And then, nothing. He did not make a call to the police or emergency services. There was no PCR call. No ambulance summoned. No attempt to pull the man out.
Both Rajesh Kumar Prajapati and Yogesh has been arrested today. Yogesh had escaped to Etawah soon after the incident but was tracked down and arrested there.
Yogesh was working as a labourer on the Delhi Jal Board project and had been living in a tent barely 10 feet away from the open pit. When the security guard informed Yogesh, he stepped out, looked into the ditch, and saw a motorcycle lying inside. He then informed the sub-contractor, Rajesh Prajapati.
“We will arrest everyone involved in this incident,” the DCP said. “Whoever is responsible will be booked. The CCTV footage is being analysed thoroughly.”
NO MEANINGFUL HELP FROM POLICE
But it is not just public apathy and indifference that are in the dock here. The police are another culprit.
Even as Kamal lay in the pit through the night, his family was searching for him. Kamal’s twin brother, Karan Dhyani, said they visited multiple police stations -- Dabri, Vikaspuri and Sagarpur -- while searching for him during the night. They did not receive meaningful assistance, he alleged.
Karan said he was given his brother’s last known location, after which he began searching for him.
“When I went to the police, they shared a location and said this was where he was last seen. I have been searching here, near this park,” he said.
“It has been more than 24 hours since my brother's death, and the police are still saying they are looking for cameras,” the brother, angry and bereaved, said.
Police said they checked medico-legal case records and the bike’s registration number at Vikaspuri and analysed mobile location data before the matter finally converged at Janakpuri police station.
NEGLIGENCE AT ITS PEAK
This was not merely an accident. It is clear negligence, repeating and often going unpunished until it claims lives. Similar to the recent case of a Noida techie who drowned in a water-filled basement, waiting for help for four hours.
A deep pit in Janakpuri, one may say, was in the middle of a public road and did not have any barricades or warning signs — a glaring civic lapse.
“This is clear carelessness. The barricade has now been put up. There was nothing,” the brother added. His friends and locals said the same, and even the First Information Report (FIR) says so.
The deep pit, dug by the Jal Board contractor, was left open “without any protective measures”. “There was no barricading, no warning sign or security guard deployed at the site despite the pit being dug in the middle of the road,” the FIR noted.
Local residents also said barricades and debris appeared only after Kamal’s death.
“This is not a one-day issue. After the boy died, they suddenly remembered to put up barricades,” said Jaspreet Singh, a Janakpuri resident. “There were no signs or barricading earlier. Whatever has been installed now was done in a hurry after the incident.”
He alleged that open pits and construction debris had been lying on the stretch for nearly four months, forcing commuters and even schoolchildren to take longer routes.
Another resident told India Today that he himself fell into one of the pits at the spot. “They have not done anything here. You can see there, soil accumulated in front of that flat. I myself have fallen there once. At least they should have put up some lights,” he said.
Advocate Astha Chaturvedi, representing the victim’s family, called it “complete carelessness.”
“The pit was not covered properly, nor was any barricading placed around it to warn commuters. There were no warning signs, reflectors or lighting at the site,” she said. “The Delhi Jal Board showed complete carelessness.”
MERE SUSPENSIONS ENOUGH?
On Friday, the Delhi government suspended three DJB officials -- an executive engineer, an assistant engineer and a junior engineer. A case has been filed under charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (Section 105) against the contractor and concerned officials.
But for Kamal’s brother, friends and family, suspensions are not enough.
“No one can compensate for my loss. I only want my parents to get support and my brother to get justice quickly,” Karan said.
“We don’t want sympathy, we want justice,” said his friend Altaf. “The suspension of officers should not be just for show. Take the strictest possible action. Do whatever you need to do, but don’t lie.”
He added that Kamal had already suffered personal tragedies in recent years. “This accident, falling into this pit, which caused Kamal’s death, should never happen again.”
Kamal Dhyani’s death on Friday, after he fell into an open, unbarricaded pit in a poorly lit area of the national capital, is not merely another statistic in a long list of civic failures. It is a testament to how indifference, negligence and delayed action can converge with deadly consequences.