Family of ‘electrocuted’ engineer seeks Rs. 29.81 crore compensation

June 13, 2014 12:02 am | Updated November 16, 2021 07:18 pm IST - Bangalore:

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday asked the authorities of Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom), Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) whether it was possible to do away with electricity transformers on pavements and roads.

Justice Rama Mohan Reddy posed this question during a hearing on a petition filed by family members of an engineer, who was allegedly electrocuted when he touched the fence around an electricity transformer on Church Street in May last year.

The petitioners have sought Rs. 29.81 crore as compensation for the loss that they had suffered from the death of Manoj Kumar Vasanthrao Patil, who was a vice-president of Sundaram Auto Components. They have alleged that Manoj was electrocuted due to negligence of Bescom.

However, Bescom denied the allegation and contended that the post-mortem report does not categorically attribute the cause of death to electricity shock but only states that death was due to cardiac arrest and “electrocution being one of the reasons [for cardiac arrest] cannot be ruled out”.

When the petition came up for hearing, Justice Reddy pointed out that this case should be an eye-opener and asked the KERC and other agencies to come out with their stand on the location of electricity transformers in the city. Further hearing was adjourned till June 18.

Reactor’s murder

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday ordered issue of notices to the State and Union governments on a petition seeking a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the murder of Fr. K.J. Thomas (62), rector of the St. Peter’s Pontifical Seminary in Malleswaram, on April 1, 2013.

Justice Ashok B. Hinchigeri passed the order on a petition filed by mothers of two priests Fr. Elias Daniel and William Patrict accused of murder.

They want CBI probe

D. Philomena and M. Mariamma, mothers of Fr. Daniel and Fr. Patrick respectively, claimed in their petition that only an independent probe will unravel the truth as no investigation has been done in relation to exchange of letters between Fr. Thomas and the Archbishop prior to the incident. Archbishop has also been made a party in the petition.

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