Nitish Yadav had told his family members that he would make it big one day.
Little Nitish was good in studies and was very caring about his parents, his elder sister said on Monday as she waited on the steps of the family’s home in Haridevpur for her brother’s body to arrive from a morgue.
The 11-year-old got electrocuted when he touched a pole in a waterlogged lane in Haridevpur. He was on his way to tuition when the tragedy struck.
The police have started an unnatural death case.
A senior officer of Kolkata police said they were yet to receive any complaint from the boy’s family.
“We have not got any complaint from the family. We have started an unnatural death case. In future, if there is any need for any information sharing, we will contact the other agencies,” said deputy commissioner (south-west) Saumya Roy.
Officers of Haridevpur police station said forensic examinations of the spot would be carried out.
Engineers from the state power department and CESC went to the site on Monday evening to investigate the accident.
“The mayor wanted an independent probe. No one from the KMC should be part of the probe team,” said a KMC official. The investigators will find out how the pole became live, leading to the electrocution.
The probe, however, means little for the boy’s family. “Many things will be done now. But if they had taken these steps before, my brother would have still been alive,” said Madhumita Das, Nitish’s elder sister.
“I would always tell him that since I lived so far away, he should look after our parents. He assured me not to worry. Even at this young age he used to take so much care of our parents. He would often tell us that he would make it big one day,” she said.
Nitish’s mother, Arati Yadav, works as a cook and his father, Shib Kumar Yadav, drives an app cab.
The 11-year-old, the youngest of three siblings, was the cynosure of their eyes.
“I spoke with him last Saturday. I called my mother when he took the phone and made a video call. We then spoke for some time,” she recounted, numbed by the sudden turn of events.
Nitish was going to his teacher’s home when he was electrocuted. He was carrying some prasad from the house where his mother works as a cook for his teacher, who lives close to the spot where the pole that claimed his life stands.
Madhumita, who lives elsewhere, rushed to the Haridevpur house with her two daughters after hearing about her brother’s death.
She said that Nitish would take her daughters to the neighbourhood park whenever they would visit the Haridevpur house, which is around two minutes’ walk from the spot where the boy was electrocuted.
“He loved to play. He was very lively. Whenever I came with my daughters, he would take them out to the park,” she said.
On Monday afternoon, Madhumita’s two daughters were quietly lying down in the room.
Madhumita pointed out towards the gully pits in the lane that had sediments almost till the surface. She said the authorities rarely clean the sewers in this area.
