A 13-year-old boy was electrocuted to death in Jeevan Bhima Nagar in Bengaluru on Sunday while trying to pluck mangoes from a tree.
Bharat, who was enjoying his summer holidays with friends, spotted a mango on a tree and climbed it. However, he did not notice a live electric wire passing through the tree. He was electrocuted when he used a wet stick to reach the fruit.
“An 11 KV line of Bescom is covered by the tree. The boy was probably not aware of the live wire passing through the tree. He touched the wire with a stick and got electrocuted,” a senior police officer at JB Nagar police told Deccan Herald.
Bharat was rushed to the hospital by G Vinod who witnessed the incident. He was declared brought dead by hospital authorities. "I managed to lay my hands on a wooden stick lying nearby, rushed towards the transformer and hit its fuse with force. The power supply was disconnected but the damage had already been done. Bharat hung limply on the tree. He was unconscious or perhaps dead," said G Vinod, speaking to Times of India.
His parents Aiyappa and Maralamma, a couple from Andhra Pradesh, shifted to Bengaluru four years ago to work as daily-wage labourers.
The incident comes less than two months after a 7-year-old boy was electrocuted after he stepped on a live wire in a park in the city.