GURUGRAM: Three pedestrians tragically lost their lives near the Iffco Chowk metro station in Gurugram after being electrocuted by a high-tension power cable that snapped due to an uprooted tree amid heavy rain on Wednesday night, police reported on Thursday.
The deceased, identified as Devendra Bajpai from Unnao in Uttar Pradesh, Jaipal Yadav from Nangal Chaudhary in Mahendragarh, and Wasim Zaman from Sangam Vihar in Delhi, were walking along a waterlogged footpath when the incident occurred.
Inspector Ravi Kumar, the station house officer of DLF police station in Sector-29, received the emergency call around 9:45 PM. “Upon arrival, we found three bodies floating in the water. An uprooted tree and a power cable meant for streetlights were also submerged,” Inspector Kumar stated.
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Authorities believe the live wire snapped and fell onto the flooded footpath along with the tree, electrocuting the pedestrians as they traversed the area in the dark and during heavy rain.
A team from Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited arrived on the scene to disconnect the power supply to the entire area, allowing the removal of the bodies. The bodies were only retrieved after 11:30 PM, once the rainwater had fully receded.
Meanwhile, family members of Jaipal Yadav claimed that an underground high-tension wire caused the electrocution as it was completely submerged. “We didn’t find any dangling power cable or one associated with the uprooted tree. Instead, the exposed ends of an underground wire with signs of a short circuit were protruding from the ground,” said Krishan Singh Yadav, Jaipal Yadav’s brother-in-law. All three bodies have been sent for autopsy, police confirmed.
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Notably, this is the fourth incident of death resulting from electrocution in Delhi-NCR in the past 10 days, after a UPSC aspirant was electrocuted to death on July 22, while a man and a minor boy were fatally electrocuted in Delhi in two separate incidents on Wednesday. Additionally, three deaths were reported in Delhi’s Sabzi Mandi and Ghazipur area along with two more in the Dadri area of Greater Noida in rain-induced incidents, including a house collapse and waterlogging.