Hired to harvest paddy, brothers from UP die of electrocution in WB’s Birbhum

The deceased were identified as brothers Vikash Tomar and Vishnu Tomar, both residents of Mathura district in Uttar Pradesh

Two men, hired to harvest paddy by farmers at Sadaipur in West Bengal’s Birbhum district died of electrocution on Sunday morning when they were going to the fields in their crop-cutting tractor, police said.

(Representative Photo)

“The accident took place when the crop cutter, which was on the move, touched a high-tension cable that was hanging from an overhead installation,” a district police officer said on condition of anonymity.

The deceased were identified as brothers Vikash Tomar and Vishnu Tomar, both residents of Mathura district in Uttar Pradesh.

Police said they had to deploy additional force to control the situation after the villagers chased policemen away when they came to collect the bodies.

The villagers alleged that the wire was hanging for a long time even though several complaints were lodged at the local power department office.

In a similar incident, a woman and her daughter were electrocuted to death in the Ekbalpore area of Kolkata on Sunday morning.

Police said the accident took place when they were hanging wet clothes on a wire outside their house. “The wire touched an exposed electrical cable,” an officer from the Ekbalpore police station said.