Two foreign nationals died and two others were injured after a suspected electrocution incident at the swimming pool of Conrad Bengaluru on Friday evening, with police saying the hotel management failed to alert them immediately. The deaths have prompted an investigation into electrical installations around the pool and led to the registration of a case against the hotel management for causing death by negligence.
The deceased were identified as Alexander Maximilian Theiss, 57, a German national and Lufthansa crew member, and Juraj Horvat, 45, a Slovak national who worked as a project manager with IBM. Both had checked into the five-star hotel, located in central Bengaluru, earlier on Friday.
According to preliminary accounts cited in the police complaint, Horvat was entering the swimming pool on the hotel’s third floor when he screamed and began writhing. Theiss, who was swimming nearby, attempted to help him and was also reportedly electrocuted. An American tourist, Mathew Desantis, 41, and pool attendant Rahul Tiwari, 28, were injured while trying to rescue the two men.
All four were taken to Manipal Hospital. Theiss was brought dead, while Horvat could not be revived. Dr Mabel Vasnaik, head of emergency medicine at the hospital, said the cause of death was electrocution. The injured tourist and pool attendant were reported to be out of danger.
The FIR was registered around 4.30am on Saturday on a complaint by Horvat’s wife, Silvia Hotuatova. Police booked the hotel management under Section 106 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which concerns causing death by negligence and carries a maximum punishment of five years’ imprisonment and a fine.
Police said they received information about the incident only around 11.10pm, when the hospital sent a medico-legal case memo. A senior police officer told the Times of India that hotel staff had made a serious error by not informing the police immediately. The officer also alleged that there had been pressure from politicians and others not to share details with the media. The allegation was attributed to the officer and was not independently established in the report.
Sources said hotel employees disconnected the power supply to the pool after the incident because they suspected an electrical fault. Investigators are examining electrical installations around the swimming area, including LED lights fitted along the railings and inside the water. Bengaluru police commissioner Seemanth Kumar Singh said the incident appeared to involve electric leakage, but that the exact cause would be established only after detailed medical and technical reports.
The incident has placed attention on electrical safety in high-occupancy public and hospitality facilities, where lighting, pumps, water systems and metal fittings operate in close proximity. The investigation will have to establish whether a fault in any of these installations caused the suspected leakage and whether required safety checks had been carried out.
Conrad Bengaluru, a 24-storey luxury hotel built by the Prestige Group and operated by Hilton, said its management was cooperating with investigators. The police inquiry and technical reports will determine the precise cause of the deaths and whether further action is warranted against the hotel management.
