Woman dies by electrocution at New Delhi Stn

A 35-year-old woman, who stepped onto a flooded street at the New Delhi Railway Station on Sunday morning, died by electrocution after accidentally coming into contact with a loose wire from a nearby electrical installation, police officers and railway officials aware of the matter said.

- Karn Pratap Singh

NEW DELHI: The victim, identified as Sakshi Ahuja, a school teacher who lived in east Delhi’s Preet Vihar, was at the parking lot on the Paharganj side of the station and was hurrying to catch a train to Chandigarh, her family members who accompanied her said. Taxi drivers present at the accident site said Ahuja’s two children, parents, and two siblings had a narrow escape as they were pulled away from the waterlogged road just in time.

Ahuja, however, remained stuck in the waterlogged road for nearly 25 minutes, eyewitnesses said, with the taxi drivers using wooden planks to try and save her. After she was finally pulled out, she was rushed to Lady Hardinge hospital in a taxi, where she was brought dead.

Northern Railway said that a probe is underway so that such an accident does not occur again. Deputy commissioner of police (railways) Apoorva Gupta, meanwhile, said that a case has been registered under Indian Penal Code sections dealing with negligent conduct with respect to machinery and death by negligence, adding that a probe is on.