A 35-year-old man was electrocuted while entering an ATM in Outer Delhi on Saturday morning.
According to police, Shyam Pandey, a casual worker in a factory, had gone to the Union Bank ATM in Holambi Kalan around 10 am to withdraw money. As he opened the door, he got an electric shock and fell to the ground. It was drizzling after the heavy showers in the morning. Local residents who saw Pandey fall rushed to his help. When they tried to help him up they too suffered electric shocks, police said.
Soon police reached the spot and got the power company to disconnect the line, which took nearly half an hour. Pandey was then rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead.
Police later clarified that Pandey ?was not electrocuted by the ATM machine? as was being claimed by some residents. ?Prima facie, it appears that while entering the ATM booth, Pandey came in contact with the shutter of the booth and a loose wire from an electric meter was found in contact with the shutter frame,? DCP (Outer) Vikramjit Singh said.
An FIR has been registered under Section 304A (causing death by negligence) against unidentified persons. Officials from the Electricity and Labour Department have been contacted for a technical report and to ascertain the exact cause of leakage of current, an officer said. Pandey is survived by his wife, a daughter and two sons.
In a similar incident last year, documentary film-maker Anand Morla was electrocuted after the door of his car touched a metal gate which was in contact with a live wire hanging from a nearby jewellery shop?s air-conditioner.
When Newsline visited the Green Park area on Friday nothing much had changed in the year since the film-maker?s death.
Two new air-conditioners were found installed ? encroaching the pavement ? outside the jewellery shop.
Sanjay Parikh, a Supreme Court lawyer and a friend of Anand?s said, ?The shop owners have installed new air-conditioners in the same place from where civic officials had removed the older ones. It not only poses a threat to public but is also an encroachment of public property. And neither police nor the civic authorities have taken any action.?
The jewellery shop owner Kamlesh Bansal said, ?All shops here install all sorts of electrical equipment outside their shops. We did the same. It is that man?s fault that he parked his car where he could clearly see a loose wire. And we had to suffer losses. We had to spend around Rs 2 lakh to install new air-conditioners outside our shop. This time we were careful to install it properly and it is within our boundary.?
By Sarah Hafeez
