A youth died after being electrocuted in Pathanapuram of Kollam district after he touched an electrified fence, set up around a private field to protect it from animals, allegedly while running away for the fear of being caught by the police.

The youth, 19-year-old Ashiq, hailed from Mancode in Pathanapuram. The incident happened around 11 on Tuesday night.

Police said a team of officials from the Pathanapuram station had been patrolling the area at that time after receiving information about a clash between workers of AIYF (youth wing of the CPI) and SDPI (political front of the Popular Front of India).

Ashiq, who was in the area at that time, reportedly got frightened after seeing the police team and ran away, accidentally touching the electrified fence of a private paddy field, built to keep away pigs.

Ashiq’s body was taken to the Government Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram for an autopsy.

Though some reports suggest that the clash between the two political groups had been going on for days, the Pathanapuram police denied this.

“A team from the station had gone to Mancode as we got information about a clash between SDPI and AIYF activists. We were not aware that Ashiq was running away after seeing us and had met with the tragedy. We came to know about it after a while only. We can’t say there was any clash in the previous days, it was only an altercation over political differences,” Pathanapuram police told TNM.

Police added that as per the preliminary information they gathered, Ashiq did not have any political affinity to either of the clashing groups but they were waiting to confirm it.