CHENNAI: A 17-year-old college student died of electrocution after stepping on a live power cable that had snapped and fallen onto the ground at a grove near Vallappakkam in Walajabad, Kancheepuram district, on Sunday. The deceased was identified as Varaprasad of Vallappakkam, a first-year B.Com student at a private college in Pallavaram.
Over 100 people from Vallappakkam gathered outside the Walajabad electricity office and staged a protest, accusing the Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation (TNPDCL) officials of negligence for failing to remove the snapped cable. Claiming that no action was taken against the TNPDCL officials concerned, they blocked Walajabad-Tambaram Highway for an hour.
Senior police officials held talks with the protesters and assured them of appropriate action, following which they dispersed. As per Walajabad police, Varaprasad and three of his friends were cutting firewood at the grove along the Kancheepuram-Chengalpattu bypass road on Sunday afternoon, when he accidently stepped on the live cable.
The electric shock threw him to the ground and he died on the spot. On receiving information, police reached the spot and sent the body to the Kancheepuram district government hospital for postmortem.
TNPDCL officials told TNIE that an inquiry is under way. They said the process of providing compensation to the victim’s family would be initiated after receiving the inquiry report. “We are probing all angles to determine the exact sequence of events,” a police officer said.