PBEL City electrocution: Housekeeping staff, liftman's negligence led to boy's death

HYDERABAD: Nearly a month after six-year-old Monish was electrocuted while playing at PBEL City residential society in Narsingi , it was found that criminal negligence on the part of workers of a maintenance firm while setting up floodlights for Sankranti festivities was the cause.


Narsingi police found out that a lift operator and a housekeeping worker were directly responsible for tampering the lamppost’s wiring that had led to the boy’s electrocution on February 11.

They are likely to be arrested on Tuesday. What is shocking is, instead of an electrician, a lift operator and housekeeping worker were deployed to carry out the work.

On the evening of February 11, Monish, the son of Deevakar Kuppuswamy, a city-based engineer, was electrocuted. Family members had rushed him to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead.

Narsingi police had registered a case under section 304-A (causing death due to rash or negligent act) of the IPC against PBEL City Association, Incor, developers of the project, and Golden Star Facilities and Services Pvt Ltd, who have the maintenance contract of PBEL City.

As part of their investigation, police had written to TSCPDCL authorities to inspect the crime scene and give a report on what led to the accident. CPDCL officials inspected the wiring of the lamppost, other equipment and gave a report to police recently. “The CPDCL officials said that miniature circuit breaker (MCB) connected to the wiring of the lamppost was damaged as someone had tampered with it. Instead of replacing the damaged MCB with a new one, the workers of Golden Star Facilities bypassed it and provided a direct power supply to the lamppost. Due to the tampering and improper reconnection, electricity started flowing through the lamppost and when the boy touched the post, he was electrocuted. Had the damaged MCB been replaced, the connection would have tripped after the boy touched the lamppost and the accident would not have occurred,” a police official said.

During the investigation, police found out that the employees of Golden Star had tampered with the lamppost wiring during Sankranti festivities to connect power supply line for the floodlights and after the lights were removed and that instead of the electrician, the lift operator and housekeeping worker had reconnected the wires of the lamppost in an improper manner.