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Around 9.30 pm on Sunday, August 23, Sangeetha got a call from her mother M Kalavathi. “I’ll be late getting home, you have dinner and go to sleep,” she told her. Earlier in the evening, Kalavathi had stepped out of their house in Padi Puthunagar of Chennai’s Anna Nagar West Extension to go to church.
Less than two hours later, around 11.20 pm, Sangeetha’s phone rang again. This time, it was the Ayanavaram police calling to ask her to identify the photo of a woman they had found unconscious in a rainwater-filled pit. She had “fainted”, Sangeetha was told.
That woman, who was later declared dead at the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital (KMCH), was Kalavathi.
Passersby had found the 59-year-old woman unconscious in a pit near the Anna Nagar Tower Metro station in Chennai and alerted the police. With the help of the public, they pulled her out and took her to KMCH, where doctors declared her brought dead.
The police told the family that when onlookers tried to lift her out of the pit, they had experienced minor electric shocks, raising suspicion that Kalavathi had been electrocuted after falling into the pit. “The Thirumangalam police said she had slipped into the pit and got electrocuted. When they tried to lift her, they said they felt an electric shock,” Sangeetha told TNM.
Kalavathi, who worked as a housekeeping employee at a sweet shop in Anna Nagar, lived with her daughter Sangeetha, 28. Her body was sent to the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital mortuary for post-mortem examination. The K4 Anna Nagar Police have registered a case under Section 194 (unnatural or suspicious deaths) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
The exact cause of death can be established only after the report of the post-mortem examination is received.
‘Negligence of authorities killed Kalavathi’
The family alleged that it is the negligence of the civic authorities that is behind Kalavathi’s death, as they had failed to barricade the pit or put up warnings for pedestrians.
Reports suggest that the pit she fell into had been dug as part of the construction of a stormwater drain.
Meanwhile, Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) officials have denied that there was an open trench at the spot. There is a height difference between the footpath and the road, which was waterlogged after rains, according to GCC officials. They said that she could have sustained injuries after falling on the road.
Sangeetha also alleged that the authorities should have placed barricades or warning boards around the area before the incident.
“There are so many children and elderly people using this stretch. Now they have placed barricades and obstructed pedestrians. If they had done this earlier, I would not have lost my mother,” she said.
Officials from the Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Limited (TNPDCL) inspected the location following concerns over possible power leakage. They reportedly did not find any active power leakage or exposed cable that could have caused electrocution at the spot.
However, Sangeetha said the family was told by the police that people who attempted to move her mother had felt an electric shock.
Following the incident, GCC Commissioner GS Sameeran and Regional Deputy Commissioner (Central) HR Koushik instructed officials to identify locations with exposed electrical cables and inform the Electricity Board so that immediate action can be taken.
‘Police refusing to show footage’
The police are examining CCTV footage from the area to establish the sequence of events.
The police have not shown the footage to the family, Sangeetha alleged, leaving them uncertain about how Kalavathi fell into the water.
“The K4 Anna Nagar police told me that they will show CCTV footage only in ‘important cases'. Isn't my mother's death an important case? They have not shown us the footage, and we don't know how my mother died,” Sangeetha said.
When TNM contacted the K4 Anna Nagar police station to ask whether the CCTV footage would be shown to the victim's family, the police declined to comment.
‘Need proper investigation’
Kalavathi’s husband died when Sangeetha was just five years old. After that, she single-handedly raised Sangeetha, her elder brother, and younger sister. Her brother is married and lives separately, while her sister is settled in Delhi.
Sangeetha said her mother had been the sole earning member of the family for several years. Six months ago, Sangeetha too started working as a domestic worker through the app Pronto. Sangeetha is divorced and has an 11-year-old son who lives in a hostel. She has sought financial support from the government for her son's education and demanded the circumstances surrounding her mother's death be properly investigated.
“My mother was the only close relation I had. Now she is also gone. I have become an orphan. How am I supposed to live my life alone?” she said.
Kalavathi’s body was buried on Tuesday, August 25, at the Kilpauk burial ground.
