‘Missing’ 12-yr-old found dead in rainwater pond near Air Force station in Aya Nagar

Parvinder Singh, additional deputy commissioner of police (south), said initial probe suggested that the boy might have drowned in the rainwater pond while playing with his friends. Singh added that the police were waiting for the autopsy report to rule out foul play.

A 12-year-old boy, who had gone missing while on his way to school in south Delhi’s Aya Nagar, was found dead in a pond behind the Air Force Station on Saturday morning, police said.

A 12-year-old boy, who had gone missing while on his way to school in south Delhi’s Aya Nagar, was found dead in a pond behind the Air Force Station on Saturday morning. (HT File (Representative Image))

Parvinder Singh, additional deputy commissioner of police (south), said initial probe suggested that the boy might have drowned in the rainwater pond while playing with his friends. Singh added that the police were waiting for the autopsy report to rule out foul play.

The death of the 12-year-old comes 10 days after a similar incident in which a 14-year-old boy was found dead in a shallow water body, formed due to rainwater, in outer Delhi’s Kirari. While the police had initially believed that to be a case of mishap as well, a ransom call made to the boy’s family earlier this week has had investigators expand their probe.

In Saturday’s incident, the victim — Shubham Kumar —was a Class 6 student at a government school in Aya Nagar. He lived with his parents who work as masons, police said.

Kumar’s father, Madan Lal Gothwal, told police that his son had left for school on Friday morning, but never reached there. “Gothwal and other people from the locality had launched a search for the missing boy before approaching us late in the night. We then filed a case and begun our search,” said the DCP.

Around 8.30am on Saturday, a local resident told the police that a forested region behind the Air Force Station be checked, as children often ventured out there to play.

“When we checked the area, we found the boy’s body in a pond in which rainwater had accumulated. His school uniform and bag were kept nearby. There were no external injuries on his body and no signs of a struggle were visible,” said the DCP.

While initially there seemed to be no eyewitnesses, the police soon got to know that some other children of the same age group had been playing with the boy when the mishap occurred.

“There were three-four other children. It appears that none of them knew how to swim and hence could not save the boy. When the boy drowned, they panicked and ran away. They are traumatised and we are getting them counselled,” said the DCP.