The Hindu : Front Page : 2 electrocuted at Qutub Shahi tombs

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Saturday, Aug 04, 2007
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2 electrocuted at Qutub Shahi tombs

Staff Reporter

Labourer, security guard killed in a freak accident

Ramu hails from Rajahmundry
Venkatesh belongs to Prakasam district

Photo: G. Krishnaswamy

Lethal shock: The Qutub Shahi tombs where two persons were electrocuted in Hyderabad on Friday.

HYDERABAD: In a freak incident of electrostatic induction, a labourer and a security guard working at Qutub Shahi tombs got electrocuted when the aluminium ladder they carried came close to the high tension wires at Golconda on Friday.

Electrostatic induction is a state in which electrical charge from an object passes into another though there is no contact between the two objects.

The labourer Ramu, 21, was engaged for the renovation work of the Masjid-e-Tauheed located inside the Qutub Shahi tombs by the Archaeology department. Around 11 a.m, Ramu called Venkatesh, 23, a security guard at the tombs, to help him lift an aluminium ladder.

“As one end of the ladder came close to the high tension wires above, electricity passed into it due to induction. Both of them suffered shock and died,” Golconda police station Inspector John Wesley told The Hindu.

An Assistant Engineer of electricity department, Venkatesham, who was in his nearby office, rushed to the spot. He tried to resuscitate Venkatesh, but in vain. Quoting the engineer, the police said the ladder did not touch the11 KV lines above.

“Had the ladder touched the wires, power at the local sub-station would have tripped and there could have been marks on the ladder at the point of contact,” police explained. A case under section 304-A (rash and negligence act leading to death) was registered against the labour contractor of the Archaeology department Sadashiva.

Living at Tolichowki

Ramu of Rajahmundry came to city a few months ago in search of work and was living at Tolichowki.

The security guard Venkatesh belongs to Prakasam district and was living at Shaikpet in the city for the past three years.

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