Following the incident, local residents staged a protest after placing the deceased’s body outside the police station, demanding action against power department officials. The protest ended after they were assured of the same. (Representational Image)
A day after a youth died of electrocution and eight others were injured when a high voltage current passed through 40 houses in Meerut’s Inchauli area, unidentified power department officials were on Monday booked for causing death due to negligence and endangering the lives of others. S B Yadav, chief engineer of the power department in Meerut, said that the incident took place in Kuan Patti locality at around 1.30 pm on Sunday, when a high tension (HT) wire of 11000 volts touched a 230-volt low tension (LT) wire after the bushing of the transformer broke. A current of 11,000 volts passed through the houses for a few seconds, after which power supply in the area went off.
“A high voltage current passed through the houses, the wet walls. While one house caught fire due to the short-circuit, 20-year-old Satinder Kumar, who lived in another house, got electrocuted and died on the spot. One Bijju (48) of another house suffered over 40-45 per cent burns and was admitted in the district hospital. Around 8 others in the locality also sustained burns after coming in contact with the high voltage current,” said Station Officer of Inchauli police station Pankaj Sharma.
Sharma added that the short-circuit had caused damage to electric appliances, including refrigerators, televisions, mobile phones, etc. Following the incident, local residents staged a protest after placing the deceased’s body outside the police station, demanding action against power department officials. The protest ended after they were assured of the same.
On Monday, an FIR was lodged against unidentified power department officials under IPC sections 304 A (causing death by negligence), 287 (negligent conduct with respect to machinery), 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees).
The chief engineer said that an ex-gratia amount of Rs 5 lakh had been given to the family of the deceased, and the tehsildar had been instructed to conduct an assessment of the property damaged in the affected houses so that proper compensation could be provided. On action against erring officials, he said, “It was not a manual fault as it was caused because the bushing of the transformer broke, following which the high and low voltage wires touched.”