Bengaluru: Bescom engineers to face prosecution for 2023 Whitefield electrocution

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka has refused to quash the investigation against three Bescom engineers of the Whitefield division for criminal negligence under IPC section 304A in relation to the death of a 23-year-old woman and her nine-month-old daughter by electrocution. 

“The life of a citizen, which is casually lost cannot be buried, holding no role on the part of the officers of the Electricity Department. They need to be responsible and accountable. Therefore, it is high time that these officers wake up, right from top brass to the man on the field and put their effort to obviate such instances being repeated overall again, as a citizen cannot bear the impact of repetition of such negligence, leading to death of lives,” Justice M Nagaprasanna said. 

The incident happened around 6 am on November 11, 2023. The complainant, Santhosh Kumar, his wife Soundarya and their daughter had returned from Tamil Nadu and then took a BMTC bus to Whitefield ITPL Main Road. As they were walking on the footpath near Hope Farm Circle, Soundarya, who was carrying the child, trampled upon a live wire and both died on the spot. 

A criminal case was registered against five engineers. Among them, Sreeramu V, Executive Engineer (accused number 1), Chethan S, Assistant Engineer (accused number 2) and T Subramanya, Assistant Executive Engineer (accused number 3) challenged the proceedings. 

It was argued that in terms of roles and responsibilities and the job chart, they have nothing to do with maintenance of wires. They also relied upon the report of the Electrical Inspectorate which held that the incident had happened due to high impendence surface for which no wrongdoing can be directly attributed to the petitioners. 

On the other hand, Additional State Public Prosecutor, BN Jagadeesh, submitted that the act of allowing live wire on the street is attributable to some officers and five of them have been named as accused. He further submitted that everybody cannot wash off their hands on the basis of a report of an officer of the Electrical Inspectorate, who is an officer of Bescom. 

The court noticed that there were reportedly two complaints raised by local residents with the Bescom helpline seeking help to rectify the wire that was hanging. 

"Merely because the Electrical Inspectorate of the department has submitted a report holding that nobody can be held responsible, it would not mean that these petitioners will be left off the hook, investigation in the least, should be permitted to continue. Whether there was a complaint registered before the Bescom helpline prior to the said incident and whether the officers took note of the said call from the residents of the area and attended immediately thereto, are all a matter of investigation,” Justice Nagaprasanna said. 

The court further said: "It is trite law that negligence is to be understood to be an omission to do something, which a reasonable man guided upon the consideration of conduct of human affairs should do, would omit to do those reasonable affairs. Consideration of negligence is different in civil and criminal law. They do not go hand in hand in certain circumstances."