HYDERABAD: The Model Criminal Trial Court-I on Thursday ordered two lifeguards posted at the Sindh government-owned Hyderabad Club to pay Rs6.7 million diyat (compensation money) to heirs of an 11-year-old boy, who had drowned in the club’s swimming pool in April 2016.

The judge Tasawar Ali convicted the two accused under Section 265-H (2) Cr.PC for the offence falling under the purview of 319 PPC and said they “shall remain in simple imprisonment till the payment of diyat amount”.

The order said the accused, Sajjad Ali Parhiyar and Nadir Ali Parhiyar, would also have to pay Rs500,000 to the heirs of Inder Vineet Hotwani, 11, failing which they “shall suffer simple imprisonment for six months”. The accused were taken into custody after the pronouncement of the verdict and remanded to central prison.

The court, however, acquitted the co-accused, the club’s administrator Mushtaq Ahmed Memon and his subordinate Umair Shoro as prosecution had failed to prove allegations against them.

The boy’s father, Dr Chetan Das, had lodged an FIR on May 2, 2016, stating that his son, Inder, went to the club for swimming on April 13. Later, his driver informed the family on phone that he had drowned in the pool.

He was immediately shifted to a private hospital in precarious condition and then to Aga Khan Hospital, Karachi, where he died on April 22, he said.

Dr Chetan believed his son had been murdered and not drowned accidentally hence he lodged the FIR under Section 302. It was later amended and Section 319 PPC was added to it.

A joint investigation team comprising officials of various civilian and non-civilian law enforcement agencies was formed which named Umair Shoro and Mushtaq Memon as accused after the CCTV camera’s footage of the day the incident had occurred was found deleted from hard-disk. Subsequently, a charge sheet was filed against the lifeguards and co-accused Mushtaq Memon for trial under Section 319 PPC.

The JIT disagreed with investigating officer Siraj Lashari, over letting off Memon as he was administrator of the club and found that the building had no dispensary to handle emergencies. Neither did it provide goggles, life saving jackets and inflated rubber tubes to newcomers for their safety, it said.

The court noted that it was proved that Sajjad Ali and Nadir Ali were on duty when the boy died in the pool thus they were convicted under Sections 265-H (2) CrPC for offence under Section 319 PPC while Memon and Shoro were acquitted under Section 265-H (1) Cr.PC.

Vijay Dutt was additional district public prosecutor and Faiza Ubed represented the late minor’s father.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2024