A Delhi court has acquitted a man in the death of his neighbour’s five-year-old son, allegedly electrocuted by a water cooler owned by him in Uttam Nagar in 2004.
The order passed by Metropolitan Magistrate Dev Chaudhary on March 31 stated that while the death of the child occurred due to electrocution has been proved by the testimony of the doctor and documentary evidence, “it is unproved as to how the child was electrocuted”.
No evidence
“There is no evidence to suggest that the death of the child was in fact caused by the cooler owned by the accused,” the court order read.
Noting that children of a young age are known to wander and explore objects in the vicinity, the court said: “In such a scenario, the only possibility that the child was electrocuted by the cooler of the accused is not the only conclusion possible”.
According to the case records, the incident took place on May 28, 2004, in south-west Delhi’s Uttam Nagar when the child was allegedly electrocuted by the cooler belonging to the accused, identified as Vinod Paswan.
Cooler leakage
The boy’s father claimed that the cooler had a leakage and Mr. Paswan didn’t pay heed to his requests to repair that despite several warnings. The court took note that the sole eyewitness has admitted that he was not a witness to the incident.
“Some of the surrounding circumstances have been proved. However, in view of the settled legal principles, they cannot be used to convict the accused in the absence of the complete chain being proved cogently,” the court noted.
The court further observed that even though a young life was “extinguished under extremely unfortunate circumstance”, the requisite criteria has not been met by the prosecution.
The court acquitted Mr. Paswan of IPC Section 304A, which pertains to causing death by negligence.
