Gurugram: Man drowns while playing Holi with friends; family alleges ‘murder’

Gurugram: An 18-year-old allegedly drowned in a pond on Friday “when he was celebrating Holi with his friends on the embankment of a waterbody in Badshahpur’s Palra village”, said the police on Saturday

Gurugram: An 18-year-old allegedly drowned in a pond on Friday “when he was celebrating Holi with his friends on the embankment of a waterbody in Badshahpur’s Palra village”, said the police on Saturday.

The dead man's body. Focus on hand (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The deceased — Rahul Kumar — was a Class XII student and a resident of Shikohpur village in Kherki Daula, said the police, adding that the incident took place between 9.30am and 10am on Friday.

According to the police, a group of eight to 10 people, including Rahul, had gone to the waterbody from Shikohpur to celebrate Holi. His friends told the police that “the deceased slipped into the water and drowned when they were clicking selfies there”. However, his family members have alleged a “foul play” in the incident, mentioning that “the 18-year-old could swim”.

Inspector Dinkar Yadav, station house officer of Badshahpur police station, said that prima facie it seems to be a case of “accidental drowning”. “The family of the deceased has registered a murder case, but nothing suspicious has surfaced yet. The people had slipped from the edge and fell into the water. Further investigation is underway,” he said.

Based on a complaint filed by Kumar’s father Naresh Ram, police registered a case against eight to 10 unidentified friends of Kumar under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 34 (common intension) at the Badshahpur police station on Friday evening.

Ram alleged that Kumar’s friends woke him up around 8.30am and took him out with them to play Holi. Around 11am on Friday, we came to know that Kumar drowned in Palra, said the father.

Head constable Devender Malik, also a deep diver, who recovered the body of the deceased, said that three people including Kumar were allegedly clicking selfies on the “slippery” concrete embankment when the incident took place. “Kumar and his other friend — Laxman — slipped and drowned. The third friend — Lalit — somehow managed to pull out Laxman, but he could not save Kumar,” Malik said, adding that Lalit narrated the entire incident to them.

Malik also said that the body was lying around 30ft below the surface.

The divers and rescue personnel from the fire department and civil defence helped the rescuers to fish out the body from the bed of the waterbody almost after a search operation of one and half hours, said the police. Kumar was taken to a government hospital in Sector 10, where the doctors declared him dead.