KOLKATA: Police have registered a case of negligence a day after a four-year-old child with special needs drowned in a school pool on the Command Hospital premises in Alipore. The case was filed after receiving a specific complaint from IT executive Subhajit Ghosh, the father of Sambuddha Ghosh, the kid, on Thursday.Though the family claimed it had named the school principal, its vice-principal and the victim’s class teacher in the complaint, the cops said they will need a “proper initial probe” before deciding if their names need to be included in the FIR. “We have received a complaint where some people from the school have been named. A probe has been initiated by Alipore police,” said DC (south) Meeraj Khalid.“My son was absolutely fine when I left him at the school and I fail to understand how he could have fallen into the hydrotherapy pool as has been told to me. Such an act of omission and commission by the school have killed my son and I believe that this is a criminal negligence amounting to death,” the complaint has stated.Subhajit has also prepared a detailed timeline of the incident. “It is shocking that when I have lost my son, a group D staff was the only person who informed me,” he said. Suchetana, the distraught mother did not speak much but demanded to see the CCTV footage. The principal of the school could not be reached for her comments.Police hinted they will summon the attendant of the child soon. “We have been informed that the school charges Rs 5,500 per student from civilians. We need to ascertain what portion of it was spent on the attendant. For someone handling kids with special needs, such negligence, if proved, will make a strong legal case,” explained a police source.The Army, meanwhile, has started its own probe into the incident and school authorities have already spoken to officials of the Bengal Sub-Area and Ordnance Depot, Kolkata. These two units under the Eastern Command are directly in charge of Asha School. The focus is now on the caretaker, who was supposed to be in charge of the four-year-old child when the incident took place.“It was a case of unnatural death and we are sure that there was negligence. Responsibility has to be fixed. For this, all angles have to be probed and evidence studied. In the meanwhile, steps will be taken at the school to make the hydrotherapy pool out of bounds for all children unless they are receiving therapy there. We shall also co-operate with the police during the investigation. It is not true that we did not co-operate with the family. Army officers and school authorities were with the family all along, even during the last rites,” a senior Army officer said.On Thursday evening, Sambuddha’s relatives, friends and well-wishers participated in a candlelight march opposite Command Hospital. “We are here to demand justice for my son. The school needs to tell us what transpired in the 19 minutes — after I dropped my son at the school and before I called up a parent to enquire if my son had boarded the school bus,” said Subhajit.

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