Family says he was a trained swimmer

Officer’s brother demands high-level probe by CBI; police maintain he drowned

New Delhi : Family members of Ashish Dahiya at AIIMS mortury. A 30 year-old IAS officer drowned while rescuing a lady colleague from drowning in the swimming pool of the Foreign Service Institute in Ber Sarai. The deceased, Ashish Dahiya, was a resident of Sonipat, Haryana and was attending a poolside party with friends from the Indian foreign and revenue services, in New Delhi on Tuesday. May 30, 2017. 
Photo: Special Arrangement

The family of trainee IAS officer Ashish Dahiya, who allegedly drowned in the swimming pool of the Foreign Service Institute on Monday night, has demanded a high-level probe into the matter as they claim that the deceased was a trained swimmer and could not have drowned.

While standing outside the mortuary of AIIMS Trauma Centre, where the post-mortem was conducted, Ashish’s 42-year-old brother Surender Dahiya said that the 2016-batch IAS officer — while serving as Deputy Superintendent of Police in Himachal Pradesh in 2015 — had swum across the Bhakra Nangal Dam in a tournament and had won.

‘Probe all angles’

“It’s unbelievable that he died from drowning because he was a very good swimmer. The matter should be probed by agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation,” Mr. Surender said.

“He can’t drown in a 10-ft-deep pool. This case should be probed from all angles,” said the deceased’s uncle Kuldeep Dahiya.

Responding to queries about whether Mr. Dahiya had any personal enmity, the brother said, “Ashish was extremely loving and never indulged in any heated argument.”

Post mortem

The police, however, said that the cause of his death was drowning. “The post-mortem was conducted by a three-member team. Prima facie it appears that he died due to drowning and there was no injury on the body,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Ishwar Singh.

Mr. Dahiya had come to Delhi a week ago after finishing his one-year training at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie. His body was handed over to the family on Tuesday afternoon.