The kin of three persons who died due to electrocution in three separate cases were in for a relief after a consumer forum directed the Telangana State Northern Power Distribution Company Limited to pay as ex-gratia and compensation to the tune of ₹15.5 lakh.
The District Consumer Forum, Adilabad was dealing with a complaint filed by surviving family members of Sirigiri Nikhil, Dheeraj Singh and Agarwal Saralabai.
In their complaint, Nikhil’s widow Sirigiri Shivani and parents Sirigiri Ushanna and Sirigiri Premala stated that the victim was aged 23 when he died. In December 2018, he went to check the fuse of a transformer in the agricultural field belonging to Ms Ushanna after the pump of the borewell stopped functioning. As he was in the process of checking, the victim was electrocuted. The family alleged that TSNPDCL negligent which resulted in his death.
Similarly, the family of Dheeraj Singh, then 13 years old, Chaya Kour Dharmendra Singh Tak and Dharmendra Singh Tak, residents of Kaghaznagar, stated that in May 2018, he touched an air cooler in the house and he died on the spot due to electrocution. There was a surge in voltage when this happened, they claimed and alleged the TSNPDCL was negligent.
Sarlabai’s son Pavan Agarwal stated that the victim went to Bokkalaguda in Adilabad. She went to the bathroom but as she was walking she came in contact with an iron cooler and died on the spot. The complainant stated that the TSNPDCL was negligent and there was a deficiency in service as there was high voltage when the incident occurred.
For their part, the TSNPDCL in the case of Nikhil stated that the victim went on his own accord to the transformer and tried to replace the fuse and that he did not have technical knowledge to do so. In the case of Dheeraj, the TSNPDCL placed the blame on faulty internal earthing. Denying claims of a voltage surge, they said that had this been the case, then other consumers in the locality too would have experienced it. In the third case, they stated that the cooler was made of tin sheets. Further, there was a failure of insulation of internal wiring. In all cases, the TSNPDCL rejected any liability.
Taking a view of all evidence and arguments, the forum cited rules of Telangana State Electricity Regulatory Commission and directed the TSNPDCL to pay ₹5 lakh as ex-gratia and ₹1 lakh as compensation. Similarly, in the case of Dheeraj, ex-gratia of ₹5 lakh and compensation of ₹50,000 was awarded and in the case of Salaralabai, ex-gratia of ₹ 4 lakh was ordered.
