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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<\/a>.<\/p>\n The two had fallen into the sewer<\/a> at the site of the under-construction Data Darbar expansion project near Bhatti Gate on Wednesday. While the woman\u2019s body was found late at night the same day, the 10-month-old child\u2019s body was recovered<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n During the hearing, a counsel for the accused opposed the police plea, arguing that a physical remand was unnecessary.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n He admitted that the incident was tragic.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n In the court order seen by Dawn<\/em>, the investigating officer (IO) was directed to also investigate the case \u201con 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\u201d.<\/p>\n Last month, a seven-year-old boy in Punjab\u2019s Bahawalpur district fell into<\/a> an open manhole in Dhanote town near Lodhran city and died.<\/p>\n The same month, a three-year-old boy\u2019s body was recovered <\/a>from an open manhole in Karachi\u2019s Gulshan-i-Iqbal area, more than 12 hours after the incident was first reported.<\/p>\n