JAIPUR: A 10-year-old kid died of electrocution on the iron staircase outside his house in Malviya Nagar late Saturday evening. The victim, Kunal Pamnani was ferried to the hospital but could not be saved.
His father, Rajesh, told TOI that Kunal had just finished dinner with the family and left to play outside shortly after 9.30 pm. “The electric current was passing through the staircase. As soon as my son climbed the first step, he got electrocuted. He fell off the stairs and lay dead near a puddle for several hours,” he said.
He said that some people came to check on him and they also got shocks because the electric current was still passing through the puddle and stairs. Locals said that Kunal was barefoot when he got electrocuted. Abhishek, a local resident, said that they had complained about the open wires to the electricity department, but in vain.
“The electricity department officials arrived after the mishap and cut the wire that possibly led to the incident,” he said.
Rajesh said that there was an electric wire connected to the parapet of their neighbour’s adjacent house. “The eclectic current from the wire passed through the walls and the iron staircase because it had rained last night,” he said. The family claimed that the electricity department finally acted last night and removed the wire.
Talking to TOI, Rajesh said that he ekes out a living by working at a gemstone polishing workshop. “I had looked all around for my son, but he could not be found anywhere, it was only around 10.30 pm that neighbours told me that Kunal is lying near stairs,” he said. Rajesh said that he had recently moved to this house to live as a tenant.
While the locals have blamed the laxity of the electricity department in removing the wires, the police said that nothing can be said at this juncture about how the incident exactly took place.
