The Bombay High Court has quashed an FIR registered against three company employees in connection with the death of an employee who drowned in a resort swimming pool during a private get-together, observing that the petitioners had no premeditation or mens rea and that the incident was a pure accident.
Justice Milind N. Jadhav allowed three writ petitions challenging FIR, registered on May 8, 2026, at Lonavala Rural Police Station, Pune Rural, for the offence punishable under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.
The Court noted that six persons had been arrayed as accused in the case. The three petitioners included a former company employee alleged to be a director and two cluster managers. None of them was present at the resort when the incident occurred. The premises had been privately hired by employees for a one-day get-together on their own volition, and the company had no involvement in organising the gathering.
The Court observed that the petitioners were neither owners nor managers, proprietors or caretakers of the premises where the drowning occurred. Their absence from the site was established by contemporary records forming part of the prosecution’s case.
Relying on the principles governing criminal negligence and vicarious liability, the Court referred to the Supreme Court’s decisions which concerned a drowning incident at a resort swimming pool during a school picnic.
The Court emphasised that criminal negligence requires a higher degree of culpability than negligence under civil law. It also noted that the occupier of premises providing swimming pool facilities owes a duty of care to visitors using those facilities.
Finding that the petitioners had no premeditation or mens rea in the incident, which it characterised as a pure accident, the Court allowed all three petitions and quashed the FIR and consequential proceedings insofar as they related to the petitioners.
