22-year-old drowns in Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh swimming pool

A 22-year-old man drowned in a Delhi pool while swimming with friends. Investigations reveal unauthorized entry and possible negligence.

A 22-year-old man drowned in a community swimming pool in northwest Delhi’s Shalimar Bagh on Sunday evening while he was swimming with his brother and three friends. Police said the postmortem examination report is awaited to ascertain if the man was drunk at the time of the incident.

Police said the postmortem examination report is awaited to ascertain if the man was drunk at the time of the incident.

The deceased Ankit Kumar was a resident of Shalimar village in the area and worked at a juice shop.

Ankit’s 12-year-old brother Sunil Kumar told police that five of them had gone for a swim at the municipal corporation swimming pool in BK-2 block, which is 10-feet deep.

“While swimming, Ankit’s friends — suspected to be drunk at the time — noticed that Ankit was missing and started looking for him. They saw him at the far end of the pool, unconscious, and when they took him out, he wasn’t breathing,” an officer said.

Ankit was taken to the hospital, where he was declared dead. The hospital management then informed the police at around 6.30pm on Sunday.

When the team reached the spot, it was found that the swimming pool is managed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), but has been given to a private firm on contract for maintenance. “It was also revealed that due to non payment of electricity, it was shut for the last three days and closed to the public,” an officer aware of the matter said.

However, Ankit, his brother and three friends managed to get entry by bribing ₹100 each to the security guard of the property, the officer added.

A case under Section 106(1) (death by negligence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) has been registered and investigation is in progress, police said. “We are investigating how the security guard allowed them inside. Further legal action will be taken,” the officer said.

According to police, the body was preserved at Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial hospital for a post mortem examination to be conducted on Tuesday.