Two brothers aged seven and nine drowned in a waterlogged depression on vacant Delhi Development Authority land near a dry canal in Rohini Sector 41, after they went there with four other children, police said. The incident has triggered anger among residents over the safety of an unfenced and waterlogged site in the area.
The deceased children were identified as seven-year-old Sawan and nine-year-old Rishit. Police recovered their bodies on Friday after the boys failed to return home. The family lives in the Karan Vihar area and had moved to Delhi from Jaunpur district in Uttar Pradesh about three months ago.
According to police, the two brothers went to the waterlogged area on Thursday with four other children to bathe. The children at the site told investigators that most of them entered the depression, while the two brothers sat on a piece of foam and tried to float. They lost their balance and fell into the water. The depression was deep and marshy, making it difficult for them to get out.
The other children returned home without informing anyone because they were afraid, police said. When Sawan and Rishit did not come back by night, their father, Manoj Kumar, began searching for them. After the search failed, he informed the Aman Vihar police station. Police initially registered a case under kidnapping provisions and began tracing the children.
A police team led by Inspector Rajiv Kumar examined CCTV footage from the area. The footage showed the two brothers walking towards the waterbody in Rohini Sector 41 with other children. Investigators then questioned the children who had been present at the site, leading them to the location where the brothers had drowned.
Police said Manoj worked as a labourer and his wife, Aarti, was a homemaker. The couple also has two daughters. According to the report, Manoj told police that he had come to Delhi from Bans village in Jaunpur to improve his family’s circumstances but lost both his sons within months of arriving in the city.
The incident has renewed concern over deaths linked to waterlogging and open waterbodies on or around DDA-managed land. A seven-year-old boy, Tarun, reportedly died after drowning in a waterlogged DDA park in Rohini following heavy rain on 10 August 2024. In July 2025, a 17-year-old boy, Salman, drowned in rainwater at a DDA park in New Friends Colony. On 7 October 2026, an unidentified person died after entering a waterbody at Ashoka DDA Park in New Friends Colony. The waterbody was reported to cover about 1.75 acres and reach a depth of 10 to 11 feet.
The latest deaths leave the immediate question of site safety unresolved: the supplied report does not mention any barricading, fencing, warning signs or other preventive measures at the Rohini location. No DDA response or account of planned action was included in the report. Police investigations into the deaths are continuing.
