Noida: A 13-year-old boy, playing with his friends in a society park in Sector 82, was electrocuted when he stepped on to a platform on the base of a high-mast light at the centre of the park on Wednesday.
The boy, a resident of Swarnim Vihar society, was declared dead the next day after several attempts to revive him in various hospitals failed. The incident was caught on the CCTV cameras installed in one of the flats of the society, facing towards the park.
The footage shows Hamza Qadri, a Class VII student of Indrapastha Global School, falling off the platform with a jerk the moment he tried to sit on it around 7.45 pm.
“He was a jocular boy. As he fell down, the other children thought he was feigning it and initially ignored. However, when he did not get up, they got scared. A local resident at the spot asked the children to immediately inform his mother and stop any vehicle to take him to hospital,” a relative told TOI. RWA secretary Lt Col S V Sharma (retd) said the boy had poured water on his head before sitting on the platform.
As Hamza had come home to drink water minutes before the incident, his mother Irfana couldn’t believe that her son suffered an electric shock.
He was rushed to Yatharth hospital, Sector 110 which declared him dead on arrival, family members said. “We took him to Yatharth hospital where they declared him dead on arrival. However, Irfana insisted that the doctors attempt to revive him. He remained on ventilator support till night and in between they received a faint sign of heartbeat. He was taken to Jaypee hospital for a second opinion but to no avail,” Hamza’s aunt Nilofer told TOI. Around 9.30 pm on Thursday, Hamza was transported to Apollo hospital in Sector 26 where he was declared dead around 11.34 pm, she said.
Hamza’s father Harun Qadri, who works in Qatar, was also informed. Family members and residents alleged that the 18-year-old society is facing multiple maintenance problems though many of its occupants are Noida Authority officials and police officers.
“The high-mast light is in the middle of the park. It has no barricade or danger mark to warn children. There are open cable boxes in every corner of the society where children often run to look for cricket balls. Shouldn’t the Noida Authority make regular checks at least during monsoon,” asked a resident. “There is no one to take any initiative here. The uncovered high-mast light should not have been in the park at the first place,” he said.
Yogesh Tyagi, president, RWA, said the high-mast light was erected in the park as overgrown branches of trees surrounding the park had hidden most of the streetlights and residents had been demanding that there should be more light in the park.
Meanwhile, the Noida Authority and the PVVNL started a blame game over the incident with both stating that the other was at fault. Shripal Bhati, assistant engineer (electrical/maintenance) from the Authority told TOI that one of the transformers in the society had developed a fault in its wire which led to current flowing to most of the poles connected to that transformer.
“It seems that there was current in other poles too. A team of Authority had reached the spot and the power department officials were also called. They latter fixed the fault in the transformer. The maintenance of the panel boxes also falls in the purview of the power department,” he said.
Praveen Kumar, executive engineer, PVVNL refuted Bhati’s version saying that had there been a fault in the transformer, there would have been more such instances.
“The transformer is at a distance of 200 metres from the park but there was no such instance at any other place. It seems that there was leakage on the metal body of the high-mast light. We are looking into complaints about open panels,” he said.
