Ballia (UP), March 12 A social forestry department employee drowned in a pond while bathing in the Sukhpura area here, police said on Thursday.
Lalji Ram, who was working as a field assistant, had gone to bathe in a pond belonging to the forest department on Wednesday when he went too deep and drowned, they said.
"He was pulled out of the pond and taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival," a police source said.
The police have sent the body for an autopsy, and further investigation is underway.
