LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Saturday approved a four-day physical remand of five officials accused in the case of a mother and her minor daughter who fell into a manhole near Bhatti Gate earlier this week and died.

The two had fallen into the sewer at the site of the under-construction Data Darbar expansion project near Bhatti Gate on Wednesday. While the woman’s body was found late at night the same day, the 10-month-old child’s body was recovered on Thursday.

Earlier, police presented the arrested officials before the magistrate at district courts and sought their 14-day physical remand. The request was heard by Judicial Magistrate Shafqat Abbas.

During the hearing, a counsel for the accused opposed the police plea, arguing that a physical remand was unnecessary.

The defence counsel informed the court that Rs10 million had been paid to the aggrieved family in the form of a cheque on humanitarian grounds, producing a photocopy of the cheque issued.

He admitted that the incident was tragic.

The magistrate approved a four-day remand, directing that the police complete their investigation during the remand period and produce the suspects again on February 3.

In the court order seen by Dawn, the investigating officer (IO) was directed to also investigate the case “on the aspect of contributory negligence of officers/officials of Wasa (Water and Sanitation Agency) and the civil administration as well responsible to look after the ongoing construction project at the place of occurrence”.

Last month, a seven-year-old boy in Punjab’s Bahawalpur district fell into an open manhole in Dhanote town near Lodhran city and died.

The same month, a three-year-old boy’s body was recovered from an open manhole in Karachi’s Gulshan-i-Iqbal area, more than 12 hours after the incident was first reported.