Student, two employees charred to death on ITI Sirsa campus

Chandigarh: A student and two employees of the Haryana government’s Industrial Training Institute at Odhan suburban township in Haryana’s Sirsa district were charred to death on Wednesday morning.
Nineteen-year-old student Lovepreet Singh and two outsourced Class IV employees — watchman Inderpal Singh (45) and helper Kewal Singh (21) — got electrocuted on campus when they were sent to check and rectify a fault in the electricity supply on the campus. Inderpal was Kewal’s father.
Fourth person, identified as Ramesh Kumar, a worker, made a foiled attempt to save them and suffered 75% burns. He was rushed to Maharaja Aggarsain Medical College Agroha in Hisar. His condition is said to be critical.
When the trio were carrying a moveable ladder, over 40 feet high, made of iron, it touched the 11,000 Volt high tension wire passing above the ITI campus and within seconds all the three of them were charred to death.
The student and workers were sent on the job despite their lack of knowledge and expertise. Preliminary investigations hinted at gross negligence on the part of the institute’s management and the police have registered a case against group instructor Prem Kumar for negligence causing death at Odhan police station, said Sirsa SP Arun Singh. The case was registered on the complaint by Inderpal’s brother Prem Singh.
“Our priority is to get autopsy done. Our teams are investigating the matter. Primarily, the case has been registered against the teacher in-charge. We shall add names if involvement of more persons, directly or indirectly is discovered,” added Arun Singh.
Sending the student and workers to rectify an electrical fault was gross negligence as such kind of repairs need expertise and expert guidance, the SP said.