In this tiny village in Ghaziabad, grief has now a permanent address: the single-room home where 25-year-old Shaista Khan and her three children — Adnan (5), two-and-a-half-year-old Navya and 10-month-old Arhan — live. On June 15, Shaista’s husband Yunus Khan was electrocuted while fixing a wire near the entrance of Ayodhya Ganj at GT Road in Dadri, Greater Noida. Yunus, 26, was employed as a lineman with Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited (PVVNL) under a contract with Sherlock Services. His family said he was paid a salary of Rs 8,000 a month. “I have nobody now. My parents are also not alive. How will I raise these little children?’’ Shaista asks, her voice hoarse from wailing. “They (officials) switched on the electricity even when he was still working on the wire. He got electrocuted. He was hanging on the wire for 15 minutes. No one came to help him.” With his job bringing him to Dadri, Yunus was living with his wife and children in a rented room there. His family has now returned to this single-room home owned by Yunus’s 77-year-old father, Mehruddin, in Jalalabad village. Mehruddin, who has a broken foot and is unable to walk, lives with his 55-year-old daughter Sehnaz Khan, a widow, in this tiny house. “How would we all manage to live in this place?” Shaista asks. Five days after Yunus died, Jalalabad village is in shock. Dozens of women have assembled inside the small room where Shaista sits in a corner. They have come to console her. “I had called him at 2.45 pm. I asked him if he had lunch. He told me he did not get time but will eat once he is free,’’ Shaista says. “The next thing I know, he is gone”. An FIR was registered with Dadri police station under IPC Section 304 (death due to negligence). In the complaint, Mehruddin said his son worked under a Junior Engineer as a lineman. Mehruddin blames the “carelessness of the electricity department and Junior Engineer” concerned for his son’s death. “. the power was turned on without checking. This led to his death on the spot,” he says. Investigating Officer Praveen Kumar says the probe is still under process. “I want justice. Nothing has happened even after the FIR. I want the government to look into this matter,” Shaista says. Mehruddin has been inconsolable. “They killed my son,” he says. The family alleged that neither the department nor anybody from the government has approached them. Yunus’s younger brother Imtizal Khan claimed he (Yunus) had not been paid his salary for four months. “He was waiting for his salary and he would have left the job,” he says. He says Yunus had survived one such instance a few weeks back. “While he was fixing the wire, someone had turned on the feeder then too. But that time, he was only injured,” he says. “He (Yunus) had a phone with him. Nobody called him to confirm if the wire was fixed. They just turned on the power. There is a register that maintains all these accounts. This cannot be carelessness. It is a planned murder,” he alleges. Executive Engineer Avneesh Sinha, however, refutes all claims of the family. “I personally assure that all our employees are paid on time, even if there is third-party involvement. A delay of a month can be agreeable but not four months,” he says. “We have asked for an MRI meter report which would assess the flow of current, and compensation will be provided. I personally met the family and have asked for certain documents.” Yunus’s older brother Mohammad Amiruddin alleges he was not provided with any safety gear. “There were no gloves, cap, or suit provided by the company or the board. Even the equipment to fix those wire cables was brought by him,” he says. “He would go early in the morning and return by 2 am. The Junior Engineer would call him at any time of the day,” Amiruddin claims. Executive Engineer Sinha says they ask the contractors to ensure safety gear is provided. “There is a manual on outstanding instructions. But it is difficult to ensure that is followed at the site of repair,” he says. Sherlock was not available for comment.
