ROURKELA: A five-year-old girl drowned in a swimming pool of the Mayfair Hockey World Cup Village in Rourkela during a training session, police said on Sunday.
The child Sneha Singh alias Isha was undergoing training on swimming when the incident took place on Saturday evening. Though the exact circumstances under which the child drowned were not immediately known, police are waiting for her mother to recover from trauma to get the details.
Police sources said her mother was present outside the pool when the training session was going on. Two trainers present at the scene seemed to have not paid due attention to the child leading to the unfortunate incident.
After the end of the session when the girl did not come out, her mother went looking for her. One of the trainers told her that the child might have gone to the washroom. Unable to locate the child in the washroom, she panicked and her worst apprehension came true when she found the child drowned in the swimming pool.
The baby was immediately rushed to the Ispat General Hospital (IGH), where doctors declared her brought dead. The victim’s grief-stricken father, Soni Singh, an employee of NTPC-SAIL Power Company Ltd (NSPCL), said he got a desperate phone call from her wife to reach the IGH only to face the unimaginable.
He said the incident has left them completely devastated. He had left the child in the custody of the trainers, but never had anticipated that such an incident would happen.
Singh said he learnt that the child’s life jacket was loosened and got unlocked, but none of the trainers paid attention to her even if the pool water was crystal clear. “When I asked the particular trainer responsible for handling the child, he kept on begging apology,” he said.
Sources said one Santosh Biswal was entrusted with the management and running of the swimming pool and Singh had paid Rs 11,000 for three months for four persons.
Meanwhile, the Chhend police have registered a case against the two trainers citing negligence on their part.
Chhend police station IIC Ranjan Nayak said an investigation is underway and police are waiting for the child’s mother to get out of shock. He said a case of death due to negligence has been registered. He assured that if negligence of more persons comes to the fore during investigation, action would be taken against them, he assured.