Overview
- A video reviewed by the victim’s family and circulated online appears to show another youth holding an 18-year-old’s head under water for nearly two minutes at a Sambhal pool on Monday before the teenager sank and was later declared dead.
- Sambhal police took suo motu cognisance, registered a case at Nakhasa station and named the pool owner and his associates in an FIR while investigators work to identify and locate the youth seen in the footage.
- Officers allege the Sambhal facility lacked basic safety measures such as life jackets and trained divers and was operating without proper departmental permission, and they have charged operators for those alleged lapses.
- Separately, Ghaziabad authorities are probing the drowning of a 25-year-old at a private pool in Dasna, have sent the body for autopsy, and are reviewing CCTV and registration documents to determine cause and compliance.
- The two deaths have highlighted a pattern of privately run, fee-charging pools operating on private land in the region with uneven licensing and safety oversight, which officials say will prompt local audits and stricter enforcement.