13-year-old drowns in swimming pool in presence of lifeguards

New Delhi: A 13-year-old boy drowned in the swimming pool of a government school in east Delhi's Farsh Bazar area.

Mukul Sharma, a class eight student of DAV public school in Dayanand Vihar, had gone to Delhi government-run Babu Ram School to learn swimming along with his cousin Vikas last evening when the incident took place.

Police have registered a case against the life guards present at the swimming pool for alleged negligence, which they said led to the boy's death.

Mukul, the only child of his parents, lived in Delhi's Vishwas Nagar area with the family and had joined swimming classes two days ago.

According to police, Vikas had decided to sit beside the pool seeing it crowded but Sharma went into it.

"Around 30 minutes later, other swimmers brought him out of the pool. He was rushed to GTB hospital where he was declared brought dead. He apparently died due to drowning. The body has been sent for post mortem which would establish the exact cause of death," said a senior police official.

Vikas has also alleged that the tutor was sitting at a corner while children were playing inside the pool.

"We have registered a case under Section 304(A) against two life guards - Bhaskar Kaushik and Jai Singh. Further investigations are underway," he added.