A tragic incident occurred in Dahisar’s Ketkipada area on Sunday night when an 11-year-old boy fell from the sixth tier while practising for the Dahi Handi festival and died. The deceased has been identified as Mahesh Jadhav, a member of the Navtarun Mitra Mandal team. On Monday, Dahisar police registered a case against the mandal’s president for negligence leading to death.
Mahesh, a resident of Dharkhadi in Dahisar (East), was the eldest of four siblings. His mother works as a domestic help and his father is a daily wage labourer. The youngest sibling is just one year old. The incident has cast a pall of gloom over the Ketkipada locality.
Initially, the Dahisar police had registered an accidental death case. However, Mahesh’s mother, Sangita Jadhav (30), later lodged a complaint alleging that the mandal had not provided any safety measures during practice. Based on her complaint, police booked Navtarun Mitra Mandal president Babu Surnar under Sections 106 (causing death by negligence) and 223 (disobedience to an order duly promulgated by a public servant) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Police are probing the exact circumstances that led to Mahesh’s fall.
Navtarun Mitra Mandal, based in Hanuman Nagar, Ketkipada, participates in Dahi Handi celebrations at various locations. This year, the team had been practising for the festival for the past few days. Mahesh, being the smallest, was positioned at the top (sixth tier) during practice on Sunday night. Around 9:45 pm, he fell from the tier. As there was no one to catch him and no safety arrangements in place, he hit the ground. He was rushed to a private hospital in Dahisar, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.
According to norms, Govindas in a Dahi Handi team must be provided with safety gear such as helmets and belts, and thick mattresses should be laid on the ground to prevent injuries in case of falls. However, police said that no such safety measures were implemented by the mandal during the practice session.