Hidden pit turns watery grave for teacher

CHENNAI: A 24-year-old private school teacher died after she slipped and fell in to a pit filled with rainwater in T Nagar on Friday night. Her body was seen floating in pit on Saturday morning. Police said Sarala (24), a private school teacher from Anna First Street, MGR Nagar was on her way to a bus stop after attending a spoken English class in a school near North Usman Road at around 6.30 pm. As the roads were flooded, she moved slowly to the corner of the road near North Usman Road and Krishna road junction and fell in to a pit that was allegedly left open after completing drainage work, police said.Her father Munian, a retired MTC bus conductor and her brother Sakthivel had began a search for the woman after she did not return home. “We searched both in MGR Nagar and T Nagar throughout the night after attempting in vain to contact her on her mobile phone,” said Sakthivel. “They came to the Pondy Bazaar police station in the midnight. We asked them to come in the morning,” said a police official.On early Saturday morning, a passersby alerted the police to Sarala’s floating body. It was recovered and identified by her family. “The pit could be three feet in breadth and five feet in depth. There were no external injuries on her body. May be she could have died in shock and suffocation in water. We will know the details only after we get the post mortem report,” said a police official.Meanwhile, residents and shopkeepers in the area blamed the lack of maintenance by the Corporation and claimed that pits on the road were left unclosed for a long time and had no warning signs. “There is a digital banner near the pit covering one side and there is a light post on the other side and the pit was in a corner. So, there was no way we could have noticed the girl fall or see her calling for help,  said a resident.“The pit was three and a half feet deep and chances of drowning is very less. We do not know the cause of death and we are waiting for the police investigation to get over,” said D Karthikeyan, Commissioner, Chennai Corporation.