Manu’s Kin Cry Foul as NPA Claims Officer was Drunk

Did poolside party claim the life of 30-year-old trainee IPS officer Manu Mukt Manav at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy? An internal inquiry headed by a senior officer of the NPA has more or less come to the conclusion that Manav, who was in a state of inebriation on that fateful night, slipped and fell in the swimming pool and drowned. Three days after Manu Mukt Manav’s death at the NPA, his family members wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking a thorough probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). “Even though Manu Mukt’s friends and other trainees noticed him falling into the swimming pool, they could not find him because it was very dark. It took 20 minutes to find him in the pool,” the other trainee officers who attended the party that night reportedly told the inquiry team. The investigating officers are likely to submit their report to the NPA director shortly. Meanwhile, Manu Mukt Manav’s father Ram Niwas Manav, a retired professor, told Express over phone from Hisar in Haryana on Sunday that Manu Mukt was a teetotaller and that he did not even have the habit of drinking tea. Mukt was a professional swimmer and he had a membership in Punjab swimming pool. “A day before Mukt’s death, I spoke to him. The next day, I received a call from NPA officials that Mukt was not well and was shifted to hospital. I suspected something went wrong, but the officials did not tell me the truth,” said Ram Niwas. He wrote to Prime Minister and Union Home Minister seeking a CBI probe into the incident to ferret out the truth. The final rites of Mukt were performed by his father at Hisar. “It was very painful to perform the final rites to my son who was a trainee IPS officer. I am a retired man and wanted to spend time peacefully. But I have lost my son. It is very difficult to come to terms with reality,” Ram Niwas said. Mukt’s sister S Anukriti, who is working as an assistant professor, Department of Economics, Boston College in USA, was shocked upon learning of her brother’s death. “There is something fishy. I don’t know what happened at the party at the poolside. But,  NPA officials are responsible for my brother’s death. We will fight for justice. We are from a freedom-fighter’s family. Fighting runs in our blood. I got in touch with NPA officials, who promised to conduct a thorough probe without any loose ends. We will bring the issue to the Indian government’s notice too,” Anukriti told Express. 

By Moule Mareedu

moulimareedu@gmail.com