Five electrocuted to death on waterlogged Ghaziabad street
GHAZIABAD: Five persons, including three minor girls, died after they came in contact with a live wire at a grocery shop in Rakesh Marg locality in Ghaziabad on Wednesday morning. Police said the two adults died when they tried to save the girls who had fallen into the waterlogged street in front of the shop.
According to eyewitnesses, two girls — Shubhi Paswan aged four and Khushi Kumari (10) — went to the store to buy some items when another girl, identified as 11-year-old Simran Kumari, joined them. The three girls were neighbours.
Maya Kumari, Shubhi’s aunt said, “My niece went to the shop which is some 20-25ft away from my aunt Jaanki’s house. The three girls got electrocuted when they touched the iron rods supporting the shop’s tin roofing.”
According to her, one of the girls had come in contact with the iron rod. As she stood on the waterlogged street, the other two girls too were electrocuted and they collapsed.
“Hearing the commotion, our neighbour Laxmi Narayan (24) rushed to save the girls but he too got electrocuted as soon as he stepped into the water, said” Kumari.
She said residents in the lane raised the alarm and tried to in vain to cut off power supply.
“As the cries got louder and more residents came out of their homes, my aunt (and Shubhi’s mother) Jaanki rushed out. She too got electrocuted while trying to pull the girls out,” said Maya.
Laxmi Narayan’s father Badri Narayan said, “He was standing outside the house holding his one-and-a-half year old daughter. When he heard cries of the three girls, he left his daughter and rushed to save them. He did not realise that power was still flowing through the waterlogged area near the poles and got electrocuted. It was a matter
of chance that he left behind his minor daughter. Otherwise, we would have lost her too.”
He said it took someone about 10-15 minutes to snap the power supply to the shop.
“We rushed all five to the hospital, but it was too late. They were declared dead on arrival,” said Badri.
“I was hearing screams while getting ready in the morning and thought that my son had picked up a fight with someone. It turned out to be a different incident altogether.”
Dr Anjay Vats, chief medical superintendent of the Santosh Sudarshan Hospital at GT Road, said the hospital received four victims while one girl was taken to a different hospital.
“All four were brought dead. We did a check-up but there was no sign of life. We handed over the bodies to their families,” he said.
Police said one of the girls was taken to another hospital,
but she too did not survive.
The agitated residents of the area, while blaming the authorities for the incident, tried to block the GT Road stretch outside the hospital but the police pacified them and sent them home.
Residents said the shop was opened by a man named Sushil Kumar, a resident of Dadri in Gautam Budh Nagar, about two months ago and erected the tin shed on Tuesday.
“The new tin shed outside the shop was laid to provide protection from the rain to shoppers. There was heavy waterlogging in the area, the reason why the five were electrocuted. The shop owner shut the shop and fled soon after the incident,” said Gareeb Das, a resident.
Police said they are trying to trace the shop owner.
“He is said to be a resident of Dadri. We have not received any complaint so far from the families of the victims, but we are
conducting inquiries. Prima facie, it seems electric current was flowing through in the shop,” said Nipun Agarwal, superintendent of police (city).
The victims’ families blamed the electricity department for the incident. However, officials of the Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitaran Nigam Limited (PVVNL) said an initial inquiry conducted by their officers found that the electrocutions were a result of loose household wiring.
“Our team of officers checked the site and found no issue with the electricity cables. It seems the electrocutions were the result of some loosely connected household wire,” said Pankaj Srivastava, chief engineer of PVVNL. Late in the evening, the chief minister’s office issued a statement saying the kin of the deceased will get a compensation of ₹2 lakh each and an inquiry is underway into the incident.