Pool victim was keen football player

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Roopam Hazarika, the Class X student of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) who drowned in a swimming pool on Sunday, and was declared dead on Tuesday morning, was a keen football player.

On Sunday at 8 am, the 15-year-old left home saying he would play football and then attend his friend Aravind’s birthday party.

“He carried boots in his bag. He didn’t inform us that he would visit the pool and he didn’t know to swim.

I got a call from his friend’s father around 10 am on Sunday that he was admitted to a private hospital on Greams Road,” said Roopam’s grieving father Prodip Hazarika, who works at the CLRI.

A native of Assam, it’s been a decade since Prodip’s family moved to Chennai. His wife Biju was inconsolable.

Raktim, a Class XII student, and Roopam’s brother said, “Five of his friends went together to the Railway Club on Sterling Road and entered the pool.

Roopam had said that he didn’t know swimming and his friends asked him to wear a safety belt.

He even wore a safety belt but his friends didn’t know what had happened to him after that. Only after a few minutes they located Roopam struggling in the pool.”

“He was rushed to the private hospital but was declared dead on Tuesday morning. The last rites were performed on Wednesday morning,” said Raktim.

“A quiet guy and an average student, Roopam showed a lot of interest in football,” said Raktim’s friends Karthik and Gautham.

Assam Association secretary G.N. Barua and its member Kishore said, “At the pool he was left unattended and we were told that he was struggling to come up.

All swimming pools should follow safety measures and if it had been followed we would not have lost Roopam.”