Out with his friends, 14-year-old drowns at beach in Malad

A 14-year-old boy drowned at sea near the main entrance of Aksa Beach in Malad (West) on Tuesday. Harsh Indrakesh Goud was a student of Sheth NL High School in Malad, and had gone to the beach with his friends.

The Malwani police has registered an accidental death report. “The boy had visited the beach with his friends Dhiraj Gupta [15], Satyam Yadav [15], and another 14-year-old boy. They are all residents of Shivgami Nagar. The incident took place between 1.30pm and 2pm,” said an officer from Malwani police station.

The boy was pulled out of the water by a lifeguard and taken to a nearby hospital. “We took the boy to a hospital but he succumbed before reaching there. The body has been sent for post mortem and an accidental death report is registered,” said Jagdeo Kalapad, senior police inspector of Malwani police station.

When the incident took place, there were reportedly fewer lifeguards than usual. “We need six lifeguards to cover the entire beach and at the time of the incident, there were only two. We have asked the civic body to increase the number of body guards,” said a lifeguard.

Drishti Lifesaving is the lifeguard agency appointed by the Mumbai Fire Brigade at Aksa beach. In an email response to HT, the agency said, “There were two lifeguards in the morning shift and five life guards in evening shift. The tender clause mentioned that we have to absorb six BMC contract lifeguards. However, the BMC lifeguards have not reported to work since the start of operations this year. A request was made to BMC for 10 additional lifeguards – five per shift. ”

According to the lifeguard, visitors to the beach are advised to stay close to the main entrance of the beach and not stray beyond knee-deep seawater.