An elderly woman and her daughter died possibly of electrocution while trying to save another family member who got electric shock while hanging clothes out to dry on an iron wire in front of his house in Ekbalpore Lane in southwest Kolkata on Sunday morning.
The twin tragedies have brought the focus back on power theft which is allegedly rampant in the locality.
Police said Izhar Ahmed, in his 50s, was electrocuted between 7am and 7.30am when he was hanging clothes on a wire that was tied between a window grille and a pipe on the wall of a building opposite his house.
He fell on the ground with a jerk and suffered head injuries, residents of the area told the police.
Ahmed’s mother-in-law Muntaha Begum, in her 60s, and wife Khairun Nessa, in her 40s, heard his screams and rushed to his help. After coming in contact with him, they, too, fell on the ground and passed out, said an officer at Ekbalpore police station.
Ahmed, who was bleeding from his head, is being treated at a private hospital. His wife and mother-in-law were taken to SSKM Hospital, where they were declared dead.
The police suspect power theft in the locality was responsible for the electrocution that is believed to have caused the deaths of the two women. “Electrocution could be the outcome of illegal drawing of power,” said the officer.
The police have started a probe to know the sequence of events.
The spot where the elderly woman and her daughter died while trying to save another family member in Ekbalpore on Sunday morning.
CESC, which supplies power to the area, sent a team of officials to inspect the power network.
“It could be that the incident was the outcome of some unauthorised activity but there was no physical evidence of any such act at the spot,” said a CESC official.
“All CESC cables are underground. There was no chance of any unauthorised activity involving CESC cables.”
Mayor and state urban development minister Firhad Hakim, who is also the local MLA, visited the spot after the deaths were reported. Hakim, too, said the electrocution might have been caused by power theft.
“This seems to have happened because of power theft. There is a syndicate that is involved in power theft. Because of them this tragic incident happened,” Hakim told The Telegraph on Sunday evening.
The mayor later held a meeting with police officers, residents of the area and CESC engineers at Ekbalpore police station.
“I have asked CESC engineers to team up with the police and visit every house in the area to detect power theft. If they come across any instance of power theft, they must immediately remove the wires used for pilferage and register a police complaint,” Hakim said.
“Just removing wires will not help. They will use other wires to steal power. We have to arrest those involved in power theft to stop this.”
The three family members got electrocuted in a narrow lane marked with dangling cables. “We have very little space here. So we have to use cables to hang our clothes to dry,” said a resident of the neighbourhood.
This newspaper went to the spot on Sunday afternoon and saw the wire on which Ahmed was reportedly hanging clothes had been snapped and wrapped around a window grille.
A resident of the locality said that till the accident happened, the wire had been tied between the window grille and a pipe around six feet apart.
Several cables were found hanging dangerously in clusters from roadside posts.
The bodies of Muntaha Begum and Khairun Nessa have been sent for post-mortem. Apart from her husband, Khairun Nessa leaves behind two children.
“We strongly urge people to take adequate precautions to avoid accidents involving power cables. Hanging clothes out to dry on metal wires carrying electricity is dangerous,” said a senior officer at Lalbazar.
The joint commissioner of police, crime, Sankha Shubhra Chakrabarty, said an unnatural death case has been registered. There was no complaint by the family till Sunday evening.