GREATER NOIDA: A 28-year-old chartered accountant, who had come to Ryan International School in Beta-I sector for auditing, was found dead inside the school on Thursday. Ajay Sharma, originally from Koderma in Jharkhand, allegedly scaled a four-feet high wall around 7.15pm on Thursday evening to reach the swimming pool where he was found drowned.
According to security guards, they heard Sharma’s cries for help but by the time they opened the swimming pool complex and reached him, he had drowned.
The police, however, have refused to rule out foul play. They said they have found two pairs of slippers, one each on two ends of the pool. “We have detained Devanand Pawar, Sharma’s colleague who was assisting him in auditing, and the guards for questioning, ” said Akshay Singh, SO at the Kasna police station. “We are waiting for Sharma’s parents to arrive from Jhumri Tilaiya. They want the postmortem to be carried out in their presence. We are investigating if he knew swimming.”
Pawar, 24, told the police that he and Sharma arrived in Greater Noida on Monday from Amritsar after completing the audit of another school there. They were scheduled to go to the school’s Ghaziabad branch on Friday. The two were supposed to submit their report at the company headquarter in Mumbai on May 28.
“On Wednesday Ajay wanted to go for a swim at the school pool, claiming he knew swimming. He scaled wall of the pool compound from around 6pm. The pool instructor told him he was violating law but agreed to provide a trainer after seeing Ajay’s enthusiasm,” said Pawar.
Pawar added they completed auditing on Thursday around 4.15pm. “We were relaxing in our room when Ajay suggested we go for swimming. I received a phone call and left. When I came back, I did not find him in the room. I went to the pool and heard Ajay calling my name and shouting for help. A driver employed with the school jumped the walls even as the guards opened the compound gates. By the time we could pull him out, he was dead,” claimed Pawar.
Sudha Singh, the school principal, said the pool usually has a coach and a lifeguard between 7am and 12noon and between 3pm and 6pm. “Since, students frequent this area, we lock up the premises at all other times. We warned Ajay on Wednesday not to go to the pool as tiles and stairs were loose due to some maintenance work. He disregarded our warning. The school has been dragged into this incident, even though we tried our best to avert any accident,” she said.
According to SSP (Gautambudh Nagar) A K Singh, this is the third death in a swimming pool at Gautambudh Nagar in six months and the second in an educational institution. The district administration said it would issue notices to all swimming pools, asking them to take adequate steps to ensure safety of swimmers.
