Labourer electrocuted at hospital site, third such fatality in a week in Delhi

The victim, 18-year-old Sujit Kumar, accidentally stepped on a waterlogged floor and was electrocuted.

An 18-year-old man died on Sunday morning after suffering electric shock in the basement of an under-construction pediatric block building on the premises of Lok Nayak hospital where he was working as a labourer, police said.

A private guard at the under-construction site in Lok Nayak hospital where labourer died of electrocution. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

Police said that initial inquiry showed that the labourer, 18-year-old Sujit Kumar from Bihar’s Samastipur, accidentally stepped on a waterlogged floor and was electrocuted while trying to switch on a water pump.

A case of death by negligence and negligent conduct with respect to machinery was registered under sections 304A and 287 of Indian Penal Code against the building’s contractor at the IP Estate police station, the police said.

Kumar’s death was the third such incident in the city in the past one week. On last Sunday (June 25), a 35-year-old school teacher from Preet Vihar died of electrocution as soon as she stepped onto a waterlogged street in the taxi parking lot of New Delhi railway station in Paharganj side. Sakshi Ahuja was going to board a Vande Bharat train for Chandigarh with her two children, two siblings and parents, when she suffered electric shock and died at the spot. Around an hour before that, a teenager named Sohail died after he stepped in a waterlogged lane in Taimoor Nagar in south Delhi and suffered electric shock.

Police said the construction of the pediatric block building is being carried out by the Public Works Department (PWD) of Delhi government. The PWD has roped in a private construction company, the police said.

Deputy commissioner of police (central) Sanjay Kumar Sain said that around 9am, a person was brought to the emergency of Lok Nayak hospital as he had suffered an electric shock. The patient was declared brought dead by the doctors. A police team reached the hospital and enquired about the incident. The dead patient was identified as Sujeet Kumar. He was brought to the hospital by his brother Prince Kumar, 20, the DCP added.

“On enquiry, it was learnt that Sujeet was working as a labourer at the construction site which is situated on the premises of Lok Nayak hospital. On Sunday morning around 8.30 am, he went to switch on the water pump installed in the basement of the under construction building to drain out rainwater. The area around the pump was waterlogged due to rains. He stepped on the waterlogged floor and suffered electric shock while trying to switch on the pump,” said DCP Sain.

The police said Sujeet’s brother saw him and raised an alarm. The power connection was switched off and Sujeet was rescued. He was rushed to the hospital but by then he had died. A team of the forensic experts inspected the site after the incident to ascertain the exact cause of electrocution.

“The experts have been asked to help us know if there were any live wires in the waterlogged area that caused electric shock or the current was flowing in the body of the water pump that Sujeet may have accidentally touched,” said an investigator who asked not to be named.

Sujeet is survived by his parents and three siblings, including two sisters. He came to Delhi some months ago to visit his brother, who helped him get an employment at the same construction site.

The hospital administration did not comment on the incident.