BENGALURU: Jnanabharathi police on Thursday filed a case against Bescom officials for alleged negligence after a 52-year-old man and his daughter died due to transformer explosion. The incident took place in Jnanabharathi on Wednesday evening and Shivakumar, a security guard and his daughter, Chaitanya, 18, succumbed to their injuries in the hospital late night.
The police issued a notice to the authorities concerned to take legal action based on a complaint filed by an elder brother of Shivakumar, Papanna. The duo had sustained severe burn injuries in the mishap, a senior police officer said, and were shifted to Victoria Hospital, where they succumbed to their injuries.
Shivakumar was returning home on his scooter with his daughter riding pillion. They were residents of Manganahalli. The transformer installed by the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) exploded into a ball of fire spilling oil all around. The scooter was completely gutted in the mishap and the passers-by rushed the injured to the hospital.
Shivakumar had reportedly gone to Nagarabahvi to book a convention hall for Chaitanya’s engagement which was scheduled in the first week of April. The blast, Bescom officials said occurred due to a technical snag, when they were passing through the main road. A team is investigating the incident to submit a report to senior officials.
Negligence led to blast, admits minister
Bengaluru: Energy Minister V Sunil Kumar admitted that negligence in attending to complaints led to explosion of a transformer, which claimed the life of a father and daughter near Manganahalli Bridge on Wednesday. The issue was discussed in both the legislative assembly and council. The minister replied that a preliminary probe had revealed that Bescom had received an alert at 12.50pm, but the complaint was not attended to.