Electricity tower crashes,1 dead

The incident took place around 11.30 pm,the police said.

The deceased has been identified as Ashok Kumar Singhal,49,a resident of Malkaganj,North Delhi. Ajay Kumar,25,an engineer working in Karnal (Haryana),who was in Singhal’s vehicle,is undergoing treatment at Jeevan Anmol Hospital in the area.

The police have registered a case of negligence against BSES,which distributes electricity in the area.

An officer said Singhal was taking Kumar to the latter’s friend’s house in Noida when the mishap took place.

“Singhal died due to the shock,and Kumar suffered injuries on his face when a part of a tower that fell on the auto-rickshaw brushed his face,” the officer said. According to police,the electric towers were a stone’s throw from the Mayur Vihar Phase-I Metro line — they would have fallen on the tracks if they had tumbled on the other side.

The officer said the deceased lived at Shakti Nagar (house number 186) in Malkaganj — his wife Draupadi and sons Rajesh,Dinesh,Rakesh and Suresh survive Singhal.

Singhal’s family members have told the police that he had left home around 6 pm on Sunday — he drove the auto-rickshaw on rent.

Pandav Nagar police have registered a case of negligence against the BSES under IPC Sections 279,337 and 304A and are probing the case from all angles,Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) K C Dwivedi said.

He said the police are yet to ascertain how and why the towers fell down. He said the police will seek help of technical experts for this.

According to the case investigating officer,BSES officials claimed that several plates used in the towers were stolen,which resulted in the electric towers getting uprooted and falling down. Officials from the discom also claimed excavation in the area by the PWD weakened the towers’ roots.

“We are investigating all angles and claims properly,” the officer said.

Taking engineer to Noida

Ajay Kumar’s friend Akhil Sidhant said Kumar has suffered multiple fractures and injuries on his face. Sidhant said he and Kumar had studied engineering at the same institute.

“Ajay was coming to my house last night since we had planned a get-together,” Sidhant said. “He stays in Delhi and works with an engineering firm in Karnal,Haryana.”

Kumar’s family,based in Lucknow,learnt about the mishap on Sunday night and has left for the Capital,Sidhant said. “Ajay usually came on his motorcycle but yesterday he came by bus and then took an auto from the bus terminus,” Sidhant said.

‘BSES wrongly implicated’

Ramesh Narayanan,BSES Yamuna Power Limited CEO,has asked the Chief Secretary to intervene in the matter and records the turn of events ‘correctly’. According to BYPL,the incident was the result of the efforts to widen the road being undertaken by the PWD while the FIR implicates the line owning agency. In a letter to Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta,Narayanan said the FIR is “silent on the role of the road widening agency and on the contrary is wrongly implicating the Power department for collapse of towers”.