An 18-year old youth drowned in a swimming pool at Chempapet while he was swimming with his friends on Sunday afternoon. The family of the boy accused the swimming pool authorities of negligence and they staged a dharna in front of the pool complex demanding compensation.
The deceased was identified as Hanumanthula Balaraj, 18, son of Hanumanthula Pandu, a resident of Madhavanagar, Karmanghat. Saidabad inspector A. Srinivasulu said Bala Raj, working as an office boy in a private firm in the city, went for a swim along with eight of his friends at the J.S. Reddy Swimming Complex at Champapet at around 2 pm. After swimming, the friends of Balaraj noticed that he was missing and when they searched in the pool, they found him motionless. They took him outside and immediately rushed him to nearby Focus Hospital in an unconscious state, where the doctors declared him brought dead.
Balaraj’s family staged a dharna in front of the swimming complex with the body alleging that he had died due to the negligence of the swimming complex management. “Though many swimming enthusiasts come to the complex, they have only two swimming coaches. They should have enough coaches to handle the crowd,” said the father of Balaraj, Mr Pandu, who is working as a watch man at an apartment complex. However, as the police came to the spot and pacified the family they settled the issue and the police registered a suspicious death case under Section 174 CrPc.
The body was shifted to the Osmania General Hospital mortuary for postmortem. “The father and friends of the deceased said that Bala Raj was not fully trained to swim. We are not suspecting any foul play and we are assuming that it was an accidental death,” inspector Srinivasulu said.