A week has passed since 11-year-old Nitish Yadav was electrocuted in Haridevpur on the city’s southern fringes, but police are yet to find out who was responsible for the tragedy.
The child was walking through a waterlogged Hafiz Mohammad Ishaque Road in Haridevpur’s Paschim Putiari on June 26 evening when he touched a pole and got electrocuted.
Officers said investigation was on and there wasn’t enough evidence to draw up a chargesheet.
“We are waiting for a report from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), which is running an investigation to identify the cause of death,” an officer said.
At Narkeldanga, the police are awaiting the post-mortem report of 13-year-old Mohammad Farzan, who was electrocuted on Saturday evening.
Throughout most of Sunday, police officers and representatives of the KMC and CESC inspected the stretch where the teenager died.
“There has been no complaint in either case. Two cases of unnatural death have been drawn up. The post-mortem report of one has arrived and the other is yet to come,” said a senior police officer.
Several officers The Telegraph spoke to said, on the condition of anonymity, that there was no need for any formal complaint for the police to act.
“A provision in the CrPC empowers the police to draw up a complaint on the ground that there is a reason to commit cognisable offence,” said an officer.
Officers cited a case where a child died after slipping into an open manhole on his way from school at the Hudco crossing in Ultadanga in 1996. “A case of death due to negligence was drawn up against the KMC,” said an officer.
Many officers said if a child died after touching a pole that is not meant to carry electricity, then there is enough ground for the officer-in-charge of the police station concerned to draw up a case of death due to negligence.
The pole that Nitish had touched was BSNL’s. A light had been installed on it though the telephone company has said the pole was meant for that.
