Ayush Das

A 15-year-old footballer who had played for the Bengal and East Bengal junior teams drowned in the waters of the Rabindra Sarobar on Sunday morning while washing his mud-caked feet after a practice match.

Police quoted eyewitnesses as saying that Ayush Das, a Class X student of BD Memorial International School in Narendrapur, slipped and fell while stepping into a portion of the lake that doesn’t have a concrete bank.

The talented goalkeeper, six feet tall, drowned in front of some of his friends who were washing themselves a few feet away.

Ayush’s father Kaushik Das, a former Maidan footballer, lodged a complaint against school coach Sujit Chakraborty at Lake police station, accusing him of negligence leading to his son’s death. “The coach should have kept an eye on his wards and prevented Ayush from going to the lake since he knew that my son could not swim,” Das said.

Coach Chakraborty had allegedly organised the practice match between the BD Memorial team and Lake Youth Club on his own.

Based on Das’s complaint, Chakraborty was detained for questioning and arrested in the evening.

Ayush, who was close to realising his dream of playing for the country after being called to a national under-16 camp last year, had reached the playground between Lake Kali Bari on Southern Avenue and Rabindra Sarobar around 9am.

As it had rained in the morning, the field was wet and muddy. After playing till 10.30am, Ayush and his teammates walked up to the lake to wash themselves.

“He had barely taken a few steps to dip his feet in the water when he slipped. He drowned before we could reach him,” said a teammate.

The police reached Rabindra Sarobar at 11am after receiving a call from one of Ayush’s teammates. They fished him out around 11.45am and took him to SSKM Hospital, where he was declared brought dead.

Ayush, from North Sreerampur in Garia, had started training for a career in football when he was just six. Apart from his father, his grandfather and uncle have played for Maidan clubs.

“He was an asset for the team, and his height was a big advantage. I remember him often saying that he wanted to play for the country. With his talent, he would have surely made it there,” East Bengal junior coach Monojit Das said.