Two brothers aged seven and nine died after drowning in water accumulated on vacant Delhi Development Authority (DDA) land near Rohini Sector 41, after they went missing while playing outside their home in Karan Vihar Part One, according to a report by Jagran – New Delhi quoting police and local residents.
The children, identified as seven-year-old Nagraj alias Sawan and nine-year-old Rishi, went missing on October 8. Their family filed a missing-person report at Aman Vihar police station that evening. Police searched the surrounding area, but the boys were not found at the time.
The report said a passer-by saw one child’s body floating in water near a vacant plot close to the dry canal in Rohini and alerted the police. Prem Nagar police reached the location and began investigating the circumstances of the death. After the first body was recovered, a search was conducted for the second child, whose body was recovered later the same day. Further investigation is being handled by Aman Vihar police because the missing-person case was registered there.
According to the police account cited in the report, the brothers had gone to bathe at the waterlogged site with four or five other children. The two boys moved into deeper water, while the other children returned without informing anyone. The report did not provide details about the depth of the water, the duration of the search or whether the site had previously been inspected by the land-owning agency.
The family, originally from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, had moved to Karan Vihar around three months earlier. The children’s father, Manoj, works as a labourer. The family also includes their mother and two daughters, the report said.
Residents told Jagran that people frequently visit the waterlogged location to bathe and fish. They alleged that the site does not have adequate barricading or warning boards despite the recurring risk posed by the accumulated water. After the deaths, local residents called for waterlogged areas to be fenced and fitted with warning signs.
The incident has placed attention on the safety management of vacant urban land, particularly sites that can become informal access points for nearby communities during periods of water accumulation. The available report does not state whether the DDA or any other civic authority had issued a prior warning about the site, installed barriers or received earlier complaints. Police investigation into the deaths is continuing.
