DHBVN staff booked after man gets electrocuted on Kadipur Road in Gurugram

A man was allegedly electrocuted to death after he fell down from a scooty on Kadipur Road and came in contact with a live wire, police said on Saturday. Swami Chopra (44), a resident of Ramprastha City in Sector 37D, was riding pillion with his friend Ummed Singh when the vehicle toppled after going into a pothole filled with rainwater. Singh was also injured in the incident which took place at 8.15pm on September 22.

Police carried out an initial inquiry under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) following the incident. Chopra’s filed a complaint against Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) officials on October 10 after the autopsy report mentioned electrocution as the cause of death. Police conducted another inquiry and investigated the accident spot following which an FIR against unidentified DHBVN staff was registered under section 304A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code at the Sector 10A police station on Friday night.

The complainant alleged in the FIR that as soon as Chopra and Singh reached the road in front of Radha Swami Satsang Bhawan, the two-wheeler fell into a waterlogged pothole and toppled. She claimed that Chopra’s arm came in contact with a live wire on the roadside which electrocuted him. According to police, Singh tried to pull him away and received electric shocks twice in the process. “He finally managed to get a dry wooden stick to separate Chopra from the wire,” a senior police officer informed.

The officer further said that Singh Chopra to a nearby shop with the help of passers-by and called several friends. They reached the accident spot and rushed Chopra to a nearby private hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival. Inspector Arvind Kumar, station house officer of Sector-10 police station, said that cops will contact DHBVN officials to ascertain who was responsible for the negligence which caused Chopra’s death.

Sattar Khan, executive engineer (Gurugram City), DHBVN, said that the power utility got to know of the incident a couple of days after it took place. “A sub-divisional officer and a junior engineer were sent to the spot but they did not find any anomaly. There was no complaint about any broken wire or current in water from the areas too. it may be recalled that it was raining heavily at the time across Gurugram,” he said. Khan also said that an internal inquiry will be conducted, based on allegations made in the FIR to ascertain if there was any negligence on part of DHBVN. “If there were no potholes on the road, such an accident could have been easily avoided,” he added.