JOIN US7-year-old electrocuted at Bengaluru park
A seven-year-old boy was electrocuted while his five-year-old brother escaped with minor injuries after the duo came in contact with a live wire at a BBMP-run park in Banaswadi on Sunday evening.
The deceased, Uday Kumar N, was studying in second standard in a private school. The boy’s parents, Nagaraj and Gowramma, are residents of Grape Garden in Kammanahalli and natives of Mulbagal. Nagaraj is a daily wage labourer while Gowramma is a domestic help. They had moved to the city in order to provide good education to their children.
According to the police, the incident happened at 5.45 pm on Sunday when Uday along with his brother and two others came to the Raj Kumar Park to play. As they were playing hide and seek, Uday and his brother Abhilash accidentally stepped on the skinned wire lying on the ground. The boys’ friends, who heard their screams, alerted nearby residents, who rushed the two to hospital. But Uday was declared brought dead.
Before going to the park, Uday and Abhilash had attended a wedding with their mother. Uday and his brother left for the park after their mother went out to fetch water.
After the incident, residents staged a protest at Kullappa circle near Kammanahalli alleging negligence of the BBMP, BESCOM and a private agency which had received a contract to install street lights.
Reacting to the news, BESCOM, in a media release, said the BBMP had taken up renovation work at the park.
The agency contracted to do the work was drawing power through an unauthorised connection for welding purposes by skinning the insulted wire at various points. Unfortunately, the skinned wire had not been covered with insulation after the work had been completed, leading to the tragic death of Uday.
Holding the implementing agency responsible for the death of the boy, BESCOM asked the BBMP to take action against the agency. BESCOM said it would also initiate action against the agency for having taken an unauthorised connection.
The postmortem of the boy was conducted at the Dr BR Ambedkar Hospital on Monday and family took the body to Mulbagal in Kolar for final rites.
It was alleged that that park was earlier maintained by the BDA and was recently handed over to the BBMP.
Minister K J George along with the mayor visited the spot and announced Rs 10 lakh compensation to the family.
The Banaswadi police have registered a case of negligence and are investigating.
