The distraught wife of Rakesh Yadav, a 40-year-old worker who has been trapped along the excavating machine he had been operating in a 60-foot-deep trench at the Surya water supply project site in Sasunavghar near Versova bridge since May 29, wondered why he was sent to work in the “unprotected” and “rain-saturated” site if the authorities concerned were in no position to pull him out.

“This is pure hell. Why was my husband sent to work in such a situation? The authorities have been unable to rescue him for the past 17 days. Who had been monitoring the work at the construction site? I will not move from here until I see his bones,” said Sushila Yadav, who— along with her children, brother and other relatives—boarded a Mumbai-bound train from her home town Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh after learning from one of Rakesh’s co-workers that his life was in danger.