Mason electrocuted in MLA’s house

BALANGIR:  A 46-year-old mason, working in Patnagarh MLA Saroj Meher’s under-construction house, was electrocuted to death after coming in contact with a live wire here on Thursday. Dinger Bariha, was engaged in plastering work of the house when the mishap took place. Sources said at around 9 am, the victim was at the rooftop when he suffered electrocution from an 11 kv flashover.

His co-workers rushed him to Patnagarh subdivisional hospital but the doctor on duty declared him brought dead. The doctor informed the matter to local police following which cops reached the hospital and started inquiry. Dinger’s co-workers sought government assistance for his family of six saying the mason’s financial condition was not good.

The deceased was from Changria village under Patnagarh police limits. Following the incident, the victim’s 25-year-old son Radhakanta Bariha lodged a complaint with Patnagarh police. Radhakanta said his father worked in an under-construction house at Patnagarh where the mishap occurred. However, he said he was unaware if the house belonged to the MLA.

Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) of Patnagarh Suresh Naik said, basing on the complaint of the victim’s son, police have registered an unnatural death case. Postmortem of the body has also been completed. “Investigation is on and we are waiting for the autopsy report,” he added. Despite repeated attempts, MLA Meher could not be contacted. In 2019, Meher was in news for forcing a junior engineer of Public Works Department (PWD) to do sit-ups over poor road construction work on June 5. He was later arrested on June 24 the same year.