Two persons, including a temple priest, were electrocuted on the premises of Gattu Maisamma Temple at Bommalaramaram mandal headquarters in the early hours of Monday.
The deceased were identified as Yerpula Swamy, 53, native of Kondamadugu village of Bibinagar mandal, and Uppunuthala Manikanta, 21, resident of Nagaram in Rangareddy district.
The temple priests were getting ready to perform tholli puja to mark the beginning of day-long jatara when Manikanta came in touch with 11KV live electric wires, which fell on the ground due to gales.
Unaware of the situation, Manikanta, a IIIrd-year B-Tech graduate of CBIT College, stepped on them. The temple priest rushed to his rescue and both of them suffered serious burn injuries and died on the spot.
The organisers had cancelled the jatara, which receives over one lakh devotees from across the State.
Both the deceased belong to Bindla community, a sub-caste of Scheduled Castes. According to the temple custom, Bindla caste people act as priests of this temple.
