BENGALURU: Enter a house tucked away in Koramangala’s residential area in Jal Bhavan’s neighbourhood and a woman rushes to offer hand sanitizer. She fears that her son might catch an infection. A five-year-old child lies in the corner of a room staring at the ceiling.
Two months ago, five-year-old Muizz Ahmed suffered an electric shock and had over 80 per cent burns. He has been confined to the bed ever since. While his friends go to school and spend time in playgrounds, Ahmed is forced to spend all his time indoors. Ahmed’s parents blame the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (KPTCL) for their son’s condition.
Ahmed’s mother Afrath Sultana tells Express what happened on September 16. “He had school till 12.30pm. I got him home at 1.15pm. His father had come for lunch and I was serving him food. Just like any other day, my son stepped out to play,” she recalls. What happened 15 minutes later left the neighbourhood shocked. Ahmed, who had jumped into his neighbour’s terrace to fetch a tennis ball was lying unconscious, severely burnt.
“We rushed out when we heard a loud noise. It was like a transformer blast. Ahmed’s father found him lying unconscious on the terrace. We took him to a hospital immediately,” says Afrath. She adds that there were some loose wires on the terrace belonging to KPTCL, which caused the electric shock.
It was an almost everyday affair for the victim and his brothers to jump off the balcony of their house and land on a terrace just about five feet below.
Ahmed’s brother Adeeb said that day Ahmed had spotted a ball and rushed there to fetch it. “There was water on the terrace. It had rained. Just when he went to fetch the ball, he suffered a shock and fell. There were electric wires next to him. His pants were on fire. I went in and alerted dad soon after,” adds his brother who stood at the window as Ahmed had jumped out of the balcony.
His father, Maqsood Ahmed Sharif, who works as a medical representative, says the family has already spent at least `10 lakh on his treatment. He has approached the Karnataka State Child Rights Commission in this regard and the panel has already issued summons to the managing director of KPTCL.