After the body was recovered around 1:15 pm on Tuesday, it was sent to AIIMS. The family hails from Uttar Pradesh’s Budaun. Mithun’s final rites will be conducted in Badaun, they said.Heaps of plastic bottles, construction debris, clothes, and tyres piled up over the years hid a drain underneath. On Tuesday afternoon, the body of 15-year-old Mithun Kumar was recovered after part of the garbage clogging the drain in south-east Delhi was cleared.Mithun, who studies in Class 8, had fallen into an open drain in Jasola, 500 metres away from this spot on August 22. Currents had swept his body to this spot where his body was recovered four days later on Tuesday.Seeing his body, his mother Anitha collapsed and was taken away to a nearby tent by relatives and neighbours while his father Awadhesh, a labourer, rushed to make arrangements for an ambulance.The wide drain in South-East Delhi’s Jasola runs along the family’s home, close to Shaheen Bagh police station. Residents, office-goers, and children walk by it every day.On Saturday morning, Mithun fell into the drain while on his way to school, said his aunt and neighbour, Kusum.“My son and Mithun used to go to school together. Both his parents work, so they are not around most of the time. I just took my eyes off him for a second that morning. The next thing I heard was a child in the neighbourhood screaming ‘Mithun has fallen’,” Kusum said.The search operations carried out by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Delhi Fire Services (DFS) and the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) entered the third day on Tuesday. Frustrated by the lack of breakthrough in the operation, Mithun’s father Awadhesh had entered the drain himself on Sunday and began removing the garbage with his hands — the image was heartbreaking.Story continues below this ad“If they would have cleared this garbage on the first day itself, wouldn’t he have been found then? I feel that he could even have been found alive,” said the distraught father.“Look at his mother’s condition. My mother doesn’t know she lost her grandson. She’s already ill. How will I break the news to her?” Awadhesh said.A district administration official said that there were several obstructions which delayed the recovery of the body. “The body was stuck in a swamp of clogged garbage and debris. Because of this, we had to make a path for the earth-mover to clear the garbage and this took time,” he said.After the body was recovered around 1:15 pm on Tuesday, it was sent to AIIMS. The family hails from Uttar Pradesh’s Budaun. Mithun’s final rites will be conducted in Badaun, they said.Story continues below this adMeanwhile, Delhi Jal Board (DJB) officials said that the open drain that the teen fell into carried treated effluents from the nearby Okhla Sewage Treatment Plant. They said it was previously handled by the Delhi Development Authority and was later handed over to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).On Monday, the MCD suspended a junior engineer over alleged “dereliction of duty”. However, MCD officials, including the Deputy Commission of the South East Zone, did not respond to queries regarding the lapse they had identified.Neighbours said that the large open drain flowing near their homes is a constant source of worry for them.“Such drains have been clogged and haven’t been cleared in ages. People walk by these daily without realising how dangerous they are,” said Muhammed Amran (18), a neighbour.Story continues below this ad“If the drain was clear and clean, this unfortunate incident wouldn’t have happened. We ourselves would have rescued the boy,” said Babar Khan, a resident of Shaheen Bagh.On Sunday, while replying to a query sent by The Indian Express, the MCD had denied any involvement in the maintenance of the open drain and claimed that it was the Irrigation and Flood Control department’s responsibility.