The city’s electricity supply agency, Bangalore Electricity and Supply Company Limited (BESCOM) has suspended five officers and issued show cause notices to two senior officers on Sunday, November 19, following the death of a 23-year-old mother and her nine-month-old child on the pavement near Hope Farm signal in Whitefield.
In a press note, Bescom said, “Taking serious note on non-departmental fatal electrical accident occurred on Sunday morning at Kadugodi sub-division in which mother and daughter died at the spot, BESCOM has suspended five of its officials for dereliction of duties on prima-facie inquiry and issued show cause notice to two senior officers.”
The incident occurred at 5.30 am on Sunday, November 19, when Soundarya and her daughter, Suviksha were walking on the pavement and stepped on a live 11kv wire that was lying on the pavement of Hope Farm signal and were electrocuted. Both died immediately.
Karnataka Energy Minister KJ George announced a compensation of ₹5 lakh to the victims' kin. Following his directions, BESCOM said it had suspended Assistant Executive Engineer of E-4 Sub-Division, Subramanya T, Assistant Engineer of E-4 Sub-Division, Chetan S Junior Engineer of E-4 Sub-Division Rajanna, Junior powerman Manjunath Revanna and Lineman Basavaraju for dereliction of duties. BESCOM said they would conduct a detailed investigation on the matter.
BESCOM has also issued show cause notices to Superintendent Engineer of East Circle, Lokesh Babu and Executive Engineer of Whitefield division Sriramu and asked them to reply to the notice within three days.
Read: Mother steps on broken BESCOM live wire in Bengaluru’s Whitefield, killed with baby
“The F-9 of the BPL feeder of Kadugodi was tripped at 3.50 am and the same was charged at 3.55 am. Victims have come in contact with an 11KV snapped conductor that had fallen on the footpath near Hope Farm signal and got electrocuted. Whitefield police have registered the case. The Energy Minister has taken this incident very seriously and cautioned all Engineers of Escoms not to allow such incidents to happen in future,” the BESCOM note said.
Whitefield police, who have registered the case, have booked BESCOM officials under section 304a (causing death negligence) of the Indian Penal Code.