New Delhi: A 30-year-old IAS officer drowned in mysterious circumstances in a swimming pool here while allegedly trying to rescue a woman colleague who had fallen into the water, police said. But his family said they suspected foul play.
Ashish Dahiya, 30, a resident of Sonepat in Haryana, drowned in the swimming pool of the Foreign Service Institute at Ber Sarai in south Delhi during a Monday night party attended by around 30 young officers, police said.
“A woman officer accidentally fell into the pool and many officers, including Dahiya, jumped into the pool to rescue her,” Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Chinmoy Biswal said.
“The lady officer was safely pulled out but Dahiya went missing… He was then seen floating,” he said. Dahiya was rushed to the Fortis Hospital where doctors declared him dead.
Dahiya’s father Narender Singh insisted that his son could not have drowned. He alleged foul play and demanded a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
He said his son was an experienced swimmer and that he couldn’t drown in a swimming pool.
The family alleged the CCTV at the club of the institute was not functional when the tragedy took place.
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences where Dahiya’s autopsy was done said they would submit the report to police by Tuesday evening.
Police are waiting for the report to ascertain whether the young officer had consumed excess alcohol or any drugs.
Police are probing if there was a brawl at the party.
Police officers had earlier mistakenly described the dead man as a trainee IAS officer.
Dahiya was a former Deputy Superintendent of Himachal Pradesh Police and had also worked as Assistant Commissioner in the Indian Revenue Service.
According to his cousin, Dahiya was to take a flight from Delhi on Wednesday to take up his assignment in Jammu and Kashmir.
Dahiya had come here from Sonepat on Monday evening to meet his friend Abhimanyu Gahlaut at the institute, a family member said.