New Delhi: A 52-year-old security guard, Dharmender, tragically drowned in a 5,000-litre water tank at a government school in north Delhi’s Inderlok area, police confirmed on Friday.
The incident was reported around 11 PM on July 18, when a PCR call alerted authorities that a man had fallen into a tank at Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, located near the Inderlok Metro Station.
Dharmender, who had been working at the school for the past five years, was on evening duty from 2 PM to 10 PM. When his colleague Pappu Kumar, scheduled for the night shift, arrived and found the school gate locked, he tried reaching Dharmender. Failing that, he contacted Dharmender’s son Tarun, who scaled the gate and entered the premises.
Together with Tarun and Dharmender’s wife, they searched the school and found his body inside the tank, located on the ground floor. A ladder next to the tank suggested he may have climbed it for a routine water-level check before completing his shift.
He was rushed to Deep Chand Bandhu Hospital in Ashok Vihar, where he was declared dead on arrival, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Raja Banthia.
No external injuries were found on Dharmender’s body, and CCTV footage from the school showed no suspicious activity. His family has not raised any allegations, and police are treating the case as an accidental death.
A postmortem examination is underway, and proceedings under Section 194 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) have been initiated.
Dharmender is survived by his wife, 21-year-old son who recently joined a hospital in Dwarka, and a 24-year-old daughter, also employed at the same hospital. Further investigation is ongoing, police added.
