BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court has refused to quash the criminal proceedings initiated against a Bescom junior engineer, who was booked along with three others, over the death of a man and his daughter due to a transformer blast at Vishweshwaraiah Layout in 2022.
Justice M Nagaprasanna dismissed the petition filed by accused Mahanthesh S Nagur, questioning the complaint registered against him at Jnanabharathi police station and also cognisance of the offence by the trial court.
The petitioner submitted that the wife of the deceased was paid Rs 20 lakh compensation and so he should be absolved of the crime.
The court noted that the submission was “preposterous” as payment of any compensation by Bescom cannot absolve the officials of the allegation of dereliction of duty. The petitioner, who has been charged with dereliction of duty along with the assistant executive engineer and assistant engineer, should come out clean in the trial. Such incidents can happen to others if officials are left off the hook on the grounds that compensation was paid to the family of the deceased, it added.
Several complaints
The court noted that there were several complaints before the tragic incident to rectify the defect in the transformer. The police have appended those complaints to the chargesheet. “These are undisputed facts. Prima facie, there was negligence on the part of the petitioner and the other accused. Therefore, there is no warrant to interfere with the ongoing trial against the petitioner,” the court added.
The petitioner contended that he had nothing to do with the incident as the upkeep of the transformer was the contractors’ responsibility.
In counter, Additional State Public Prosecutor B N Jagadeesha said the petitioner is directly responsible for the upkeep of the transformer in his area. “The complaints were pending before Bescom to set-right the transformer and it has not been done. Therefore, the petitioner should face trial,” he argued.