Out of place high-tension wires kill child, case filed

A two-and-a-half-year-old boy was electrocuted on the terrace of his house near Alipur, on Delhi's northern fringe, after he touched a low-hanging high-tension wire, police said on Thursday, once again underscoring the city's brittle and hazardous public infrastructure, which has claimed more than 40 lives in such incidents this year alone.

- Jignasa Sinha

Senior police officers said the wire was "hanging too low" and that an official of the transmission company concerned was booked. However, they did not reveal the name of the firm in question.

The incident took place on Wednesday in Jhangola village when the toddler, Vanshdeep Singh was playing, said police.

His parents were distraught.

"My boy is gone. I wanted to send him to school. He was everything for me. What do I do now?" said Kiran Singh, the boy's father.

The national capital has been rocked by a string of such deaths this year, a bulk of them during monsoon, exposing its collapsing infrastructure, which is worsened by administrative apathy and a glut of agencies that refuse to take responsibility. To be sure, most of these deaths were triggered by waterlogging and Wednesday's incident was due to a high-tension wire.

Police and his parents said he was running around on the terrace of their two-storey home when they heard him screaming and saw his body engulfed in flames.

A senior police officer said, "The high-tension wire is a hand's reach from their terrace. The wires are too low. The current was so strong that it set his body on fire."