Another aspirant dies after taking part in police recruitment process

“Our on-field medical team inspected him for over an hour and after he started feeling better, he was allowed to go,” the officer added. Around 11.30 am, while he was walking towards the exit, he fell unconscious.

“We got a call from our on-duty policeman that a candidate had collapsed… Kale was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was declared dead during treatment,” the officer said.

The Powai police has registered an accidental death report. “We have informed his family members. Meanwhile, we shall conduct a postmortem examination to ascertain the cause of his death,” the officer said.

On February 17, 26-year-old Ganesh Ugale from Washim had died during Mumbai Police’s recruitment drive at the ground in Kalina university. The police had said that he collapsed soon after he crossed the finishing line of the 1,600 m race. He was declared brought dead at the hospital. On February 22, Amar Solanki (29) from Amravati, who participated in a similar test, succumbed after returning to his hotel room in south Mumbai. Earlier in the day, he had participated in the physical test of Mumbai Police’s recruitment drive.

“Postmortem was conducted on the two aspirants but we are still awaiting the reports. We are yet to understand the cause of deaths, which will help us understand if there is any fault in our recruitment process,” said an officer. During the Mumbai Police’s recruitment drive in 2014, four aspirants — Baban Ambadas Sonawane (28), Rahul Sakpal (21), Vishal Kedar (25) and Gaihininath Latpate (25) — had died while taking part in the 5-km race.

Following their deaths, then police commissioner Rakesh Maria had ordered the Mumbai Police Crime Branch unit VII to conduct a detailed probe. The probe had found that while Sonawane and Sakpal were already suffering from dengue and pneumonia, they chose to run for 5 km. The probe also found that the other two aspirants, who died due to multi-organ failure, were not fit to participate in the race.