‘Kids thought he was pulling a prank’: 9-year-old electrocuted at Delhi park, officials pass the buck

“The kids at first thought that he was joking, trying to pull a prank,” said Kulwinder Saini, who lives right opposite the park. “Two children who were playing there tried to push him away, but they received electric shocks too,” said a 13-year-old girl who was present in the park at the time of the incident. Two women witnessed the commotion and rushed to the boy’s help, managing to drag him away by pulling his shirt. The boy was taken to the gazebo, where a doctor from the neighbourhood performed CPR on him to revive him.

“We had come back home after a walk when we got a call from a neighbour… we rushed our son to a nearby hospital…but since there were no doctors to tackle an emergency in that hospital, we took him to Rainbow Hospital where the doctors declared him dead,” said Randeep Chaudhary, the boy’s father.

However, residents alleged that this was not the first such incident. “Around six days ago, my 11-year-old son was playing in the park and received a shock when he touched something near the feeder box. He managed to pull his hand away,” said Neha Gambhir, who lives in the same building as the victim’s family. “My husband went to investigate the area and saw that the feeder box had an open panel with wires coming out of it. We sent pictures on the society WhatsApp group, but got no response,” she claimed.

“It is my ill fortune that I’m not part of that group. Else, I would have warned my son,” said Chaudhary, who said he received the information about the previous incident after he reached his hometown in Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli on Sunday for his son’s last rites. Chaudhary said his son was a cricket enthusiast. “He knew all the teams, followed all the matches, and knew all the players. He had cricket stats on his fingertips,” said the mourning father.

On Monday, MCD, BSES, and Delhi Police conducted a joint inspection of the site. While the street lights come under MCD jurisdiction, the BSES has set up the electric feeder box.

Both agencies have denied responsibility for the incident. “Our condolences are with the family of the deceased. On-ground inspection established that there was no leakage from the BSES feeder pillar or any part of the discom’s infrastructure. The current leakage originated from a metallic streetlight pole installed and maintained by the civic agency, with power supplied through a controller managed by EESL on behalf of the civic agency. The complaint was immediately acted upon by the BSES team, which dispatched the on-duty team to the site. The team’s inspection confirmed no fault in the BSES equipment. We are fully cooperating with the authorities in the investigations,” said a BSES official.

The official added that when the woman who rescued the boy was questioned by the joint inspection team, she stated that the boy had come in contact with the street light. “The boy got an electric shock from the iron street light pole and stuck (to it). She said the feeder pillar was in a properly closed condition…The electrical inspector has carried out the testing in front of all the team members, and identified full current flowing on the iron street light pole. It is clearly identified that the electric shock from the MCD-maintained street light pole only,” the official said.

However, the MCD rejected the allegations, saying, “Upon inspection by MCD officials, it was confirmed that the said electrical panel belongs to BSES and appears to be used to supply electricity to adjacent residential buildings. This panel is not under the jurisdiction or maintenance of MCD, and is not connected to any park.”

The officials of the civic body alleged that the boy came in contact with an open panel on the feeder box that contained live wires.