'Officers must be punished': Family of TN man electrocuted by faulty electricity pole demands

"My son can barely understand what is happening. He keeps asking for his father. The officers responsible for his death must be punished," says Shankari, the wife of the deceased, Sethuraj.
'Officers must be punished': Family of TN man electrocuted by faulty electricity pole demands
'Officers must be punished': Family of TN man electrocuted by faulty electricity pole demands

It was close to 8.30 pm on Monday night, when 36-year-old Shankari heard a startling crash and saw electric sparks flying on the road outside her residence in Chitlapakkam. Alarmed, she and several other residents rushed out to check what had happened.

For Shankari, her dread had doubled because her husband Sethuraj had just stepped out to feed the dogs that they took care of in the neighbourhood. Her worst fears came true when she saw her 42-year-old husband immobile below an electric pole.

"Nobody came forward to help us because they were afraid of being electrocuted. We had to use a wooden stick to push the pole away and pull him out," says Shankari, her voice breaking. "If the Electricity Board had fixed the pole when we requested them to, this would have never happened. My husband would be alive," she alleges.

According to Shankari, who works as a clerk in a school, the pole outside her residence has been dangerously emitting sparks for at least a month now. She adds that her neighbours had already complained to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board.

"We have given a complaint regarding the pole and how it was dangerous," she says. "But nobody came to fix it," she explains.

To make matters worse, the Chitlapakkam police allegedly ignored Shankari's claims of negligence that led to her husband's death and merely filed a case of 'Unnatural death'.

An excerpt from her complaint copy to the police states, "The reason for my husband's death is the dilapidated electric pole that was in very bad condition. It broke and fell on my husband killing him. Action should be taken against those responsible for his death."

The mother of two is demanding that the officials from the TNEB, who had been responsible for fixing the pole, be pulled up for dereliction of duty.

"My husband, the man I loved from my ninth standard is dead. My son can barely understand what is happening. He keeps asking for his father. The officers responsible for his death must be punished," says Shankari.

When TNM reached out to officials of the TNEB regarding the allegations, they turned the tables on the residents.

"How can a pole simply fall when there are no rain or winds? The residents are hiding something," alleges Senthil, an assistant engineer who is in charge of the area. When  informed of the complaint filed by the residents prior to the incident, he says, "Tell them to come show me proof of the registration of such a complaint."

 The Chitlapakkam police meanwhile maintain that no complaint was filed by residents over the state of the pole and that therefore, a case of negligence cannot be filed.

However residents belonging to Chitlapakkam Rising, a local NGO, have also approached the police demanding that a case of negligence be filed. Members of the organisation told TNM that they have given multuple complaints to the TNEB regarding the dilapidated state of electricity poles in the area.

"But they would always say that they were short of manpower," says Lakshmi, a family friend of the deceased and a member of the NGO.

Salesh, another member of the group, alleges that the TNEB is now trying to shift blame.

"The residents in that area had given a complaint a month ago," says Salesh. "Even before that, two months ago, members of Chitlapakkam rising had a meeting with EB officials where we demanded that underground cables be set up instead of overhead ones. They are denying their role now to save face."

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