New Delhi, Oct. 24 -- A death by drowning cannot automatically be treated as a natural accident, the Supreme Court has held, cautioning that even a postmortem confirming drowning cannot rule out foul play and that the circumstances surrounding the death must be investigated.

A bench of justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran set aside a Patna High Court order quashing criminal proceedings against a man accused of murder in the drowning death of a boy, holding that the high court had casually brushed aside compelling circumstances warranting a trial.

"Merely because the postmortem indicated death by drowning, it cannot be assumed that there was absolutely no foul play," said the bench in its recent order, emphasising that even if a pe...