Naval NCC cadet drowns at Officers’ Club pool

Nagpur: Sudden and unexplained death of a 20-year-old Naval NCC cadet while swimming at Officers’ Club, Civil Lines, on Tuesday morning sent shockwaves among NCC officials and other departments. The deceased has been identified as Sandesh Mishra, a resident of Surendragarh, and was a second year science student. Mishra, who always aimed to be an officer in armed forces, was considered as a one of the good cadets by its No. 4 Maharashtra Naval Unit. He was already a ‘B’ certificate holder and was preparing for his ‘C’ certificate. It is learnt that all NCC cadets are given swimming training and for last 10 days, 23 cadets were being taken regularly for training at Officers’ Club swimming pool. On Tuesday too, Mishra and other cadets, accompanied by two trainers and Naval Unit staff officer, had come for training. Officials said Mishra was known to be a good swimmer. Around 11am, he plunged into the pool and completed one round. When he dived into the pool for the second round, he did not come up. Other cadets noticed his disappearance and the trainer immediately dove to search for him. Mishra was found unconscious at the depth of 12 feet. The trainers gave Mishra him mouth to mouth resuscitation and tried to pump out excess water from the body. It is learnt some blood was found oozing from Mishra’s mouth. Eyewitnesses stated that Mishra was still breathing while being taken to nearby private hospital. However, he was declared brought dead by the doctors. Senior NCC Officials, a few politicians and Sadar police reached the hospital. The body was shifted for post mortem at Mayo hospital. Mishra’s sudden death shattered his parents and elder sister, Sapna, a MSc student. Mishra’s father, Sunil, a contractor, was inconsolable while his homemaker mother Rinku, unable to bear the tragedy, kept fainting. The deceased’s uncle, Gopal informed that Mishra was very passionate about his training. Police stated the autopsy report will pinpoint the cause of death. The facilities at Officers’ Club has been taken over by District

Sports

Office (DSO) for conducting training and coaching of swimming, lawn tennis, table tennis and snooker etc. Coach Anil Pandey, an eyewitness, said, “There were two well-trained lifeguards, one instructor and a coach in the vicinity. We were concentrating on other cadets who were learners but not on Mishra who we knew was a good swimmer.” Pandey said Mishra was an epileptic and probably suffered a fit under water. District sports officer Vijay Santan said there were enough safety arrangnements at the pool. Since the deceased was an expert swimmer, he was allowed at the deep side. He said NCC cadets coming to the club were mostly trained swimmers and used the pool for completing the stipulated hours of swimming. Sources in the Club said the coach was at the shallow end of the pool with the freshers and was asked to help when Mishra did not surface after the dive. He later brought Mishra up. “In normal course, a pool needs to have at least two persons outside as overseers with a 12-foot rod ready on each side. A drowning person is first extended the rod as the first instinct is to grab it. This comes handy in saving the person from drowning ,” said a source dealing in managing of swimming pools.

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