A day after a 25-year-old engineer died after allegedly coming in contact with a lamp post in the heart of the city, outgoing Calcutta mayor Firhad Hakim blamed “hooking and electricity theft” for the electrocution death.
He asked police and CESC to set up a technical team to probe the incident and prevent such incidents in future.
The Calcutta Municipal Corporation and the CESC have written two separate letters to Lalbazar asking to start a detailed probe into the death of civil engineer, Rishav Mondal, whose body was found partially submerged in a waterlogged footpath near Raj Bhavan on Tuesday evening after a heavy spell of rain.
According to the rulebook, the primary responsibility of maintaining the lamp posts in Calcutta lies with the Calcutta Municipal Corporation.
Metro on Wednesday found several electrical wires jutting out of the lamp post outside the office of the Registrar of Assurances that allegedly caused the death of the civil engineer on Tuesday evening. After the incident, it has been cordoned off with guard rails to ensure that no passer-by could come in its contact till the probe was complete.
Several other lamp posts Metro came across in different parts of the city were found with wires jutting out, making them look as dangerous as the one that claimed a life a day before.
The hatches on most of the lamp posts — meant for maintenance and repairs — are open, raising the possibility of someone coming in contact with a live wire inside.
The youth electrocuted on Tuesday had grabbed such a lamp post near Raj Bhavan after he tripped on a waterlogged footpath
Reacting to the incident on Wednesday Hakim said: “This is not about Raj Bhavan alone. This is the condition across the city where some people steal electricity for their vested means and endanger lives. I do not know why such people cannot be brought to book. This has happened earlier also in Kidderpore.”
“I am requesting the CP (commissioner of police) to make a technical team along with the CESC to look into this problem of electricity theft.”
The civic body on Wednesday announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for the bereaved family. The family, however, refused to accept the compensation and suggested that the government should use the money to fix these glitches instead.
“...We are returning the compensation so that they (the government) can fix the glitches,” Mondal’s elder sister, Vijeta Palit, said.
Last year August, two men returning home after a dip in the Hooghly, were electrocuted near the botanical garden in Shibpur after they came in contact with a lamp post.
In August 2016, a 14-year-old student returning home from tuition had died after touching a lamp post while wading through a waterlogged Bhowanipore road.
The CMC had then claimed that Yash Bengani wasn’t electrocuted by touching the trident lamp post, instead he had slumped after coming in contact with a CESC feeder box around 10ft away from the post.
In connection with Tuesday’s incident, a CESC spokesperson said: “In Calcutta and Howrah, all our cables are laid underground and have been like this for years. This (Mondal’s death) is an extremely unfortunate incident. We are sure a thorough investigation would unearth the exact cause.”
He added the CESC was not responsible for the maintenance of any of the lamp posts that fall under their area of service.
Senior officers in Calcutta police said a probe has been launched to ascertain the exact sequence of the events. “We are in the process of examining witnesses,” said a senior police officer.