5-Year-Old Boy Drowns In Swimming Pool Of Gurugram Housing Society, 2 Lifeguards Arrested
Police said that the boy was discovered floating in a 4-foot deep pool at BPTP Park Serene Housing Society where children are strictly prohibited.
A five-year-old boy drowned in a swimming pool on Wednesday evening at a residential society in Gurugram's sector 37, allegedly in the presence of lifeguards. The boy, identified as Mivansh Singla, was discovered floating in a 4-foot deep pool at BPTP Park Serene Housing Society. A day after the incident, the Gurugram police arrested two lifeguards for negligence.
The relatives of the boy and the residents' association claimed that the lifeguards had failed to notice the boy moving towards the pool as they were playing games on their phones at the time of the incident, The Indian Express reported.
Police stated that children are only permitted in the 1.5-foot deep pool. According to the boy's grandfather Sitaram, his grandson Mivansh, an LKG student, initially entered the shallow pool and later moved to the deeper pool when his wife, who was accompanying him, returned to their flat to get a towel after 6:15 pm. It has three pools of varying depths where children are not allowed in this particular pool, police added.
According to ANI, two individuals; the accused, Durg (30) and Akash (21), who were employed as lifeguards at the pool were arrested.
Haryana: Two people arrested in connection with the death of a 5-year-old child by drowning in a swimming pool at a residential society in Sector 37-D of Gurugram. Both accused - Durg (30) and Akash (21) - worked as lifeguards at the swimming pool.
— ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2024
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"The child’s safety was with the lifeguards, security guard, and club manager. Children are not allowed in the other two pools, and to ensure this doesn’t happen, four lifeguards and a security guard are always present. They were present today as well," he stated in the FIR.
Sitaram held the general manager and vice-president of BPTP Pvt Ltd responsible for the incident. “The death was caused because he swam in the four-feet deep pool due to the negligence of the BPTP Pvt Ltd, management company, and the individuals mentioned,” Sitaram stated.
Mivansh was taken to Signature Hospital, where doctors declared him dead. An officer from Sector 10A police station confirmed that a case was registered against the maintenance company and three lifeguards under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) section 106 (death by negligence).
Mivansh is survived by his father, Binny Singla, who works with Maruti in Gurgaon, his mother, Ashu Devi, and a 10-year-old sister.
His grandfather stated that he picked the child from school at around 1.45 pm. “He went down to the swimming pool around 4 pm and came back around 6 pm. He snatched the remote from me and was watching his favourite show. He and his grandmother went to the pool for a second time at 6.15 pm and I didn’t know about it because I was downstairs with my friends. Later, someone informed me that a child had drowned in the pool. In a few minutes, the word got out that it was Binny’s son,” Indian Express quoted him as saying.
“We sent him to a school in the same neighbourhood for safety purposes and the residential society was also supposed to be safe… His grandmother has not slept. She keeps saying she wants to see Mevansh,” Sitaram added.
RWA Vs BPTP
Hemant Kumar Pal, vice-president of the Residents Welfare Association (RWA), stated that they had ongoing issues with the builder and BPMS, the management agency responsible for maintenance. “When the incident took place yesterday, the lifeguards were not even aware of it as they were engrossed on their phones,” Pal said.
“The RWA had given instructions that children shouldn’t be allowed near two deep pools without either a life jacket or parents’ supervision. We had shut the club house owing to issues like pendency in delivering services, problem in structure and ventilation,” he also said.
The BPTP has refused to comment on the issue. The residential society spans 43 acres, housing 3 separate projects and 1,500 flats.
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