Three-year-old goes missing in Bangalore. Another case of Abhishek?

Police are scouting for a three-year-old boy high and low, amid fears that he might have been washed away in a Madiwala storm-water drain.

Rihan Pasha was last seen by his mother Zabina Taj at about 1.30pm on Monday. She was feeding him food in front of their house and went inside to bring some water. When she returned, the little one was missing. The storm-water drain was just 30 feet away. Zabina searched for him for hours but in vain.

Siddiq Pasha, father of the missing boy and a resident of Gulbarga Colony in Bommanahalli near Madiwala, was called and informed around 4pm.

Pasha, a painter, rushed home and launched yet another futile search. Rihan was not to be found anywhere. So, the father filed a missing complaint with the police the same evening.

On Tuesday the parents had their suspicions grow over the drainage and the police called in the fire and emergency service personnel and launched another search in the evening.

Pasha suspects that his son might have fallen into the drain and been dragged into the lake.

“We started searching the drain after his parents said he might have fallen there. The drain is very close to his house,” police inspector ML Purushotham said. Residents complained that kids falling into open drains is quite common in the area. “In the past one year, some five to six kids have fallen and been saved by the locals. We repeatedly complained but the BBMP didn’t take any action,” Siddiq said.

Already facing public ire over its inability to avert such kinds of mishaps being reported in the city, the BBMP too joined in the search for Rihan.

“We haven’t found anything so far. We halted the operation at night and will continue it Wednesday morning,” a senior BBMP officer told DNA on Tuesday.