Illegal marriage hall in Nalasopara razed after labourer dies of electrocution

The incident occurred at 8.30pm on September 14, and a case was registered for causing death due to negligence as well as destroying evidence against the Singhs, an officer from Tulinj police station said, adding, “No arrest has been made so far as the couple has applied for anticipatory bail”

Mumbai: An illegal marriage hall, ‘Shadidotcom’, in Ambawadi, Nalasopara East, was demolished on Tuesday after a labourer was electrocuted to death inside its premises while installing lights on a coconut tree. The landlord got an order from the city civil court to demolish the structure which was carried on in the presence of police bandobast.

Illegal marriage hall in Nalasopara razed after labourer dies of electrocution

Fearing that the truth about the unauthorised structure, which also illegally obtained electricity, would be unearthed, the owner of the marriage hall, Pradeep Singh and his wife Shobhana, tried to cover up the incident, claiming that the person had died in an open ground in Vasai.

The incident occurred at 8.30pm on September 14, and a case was registered for causing death due to negligence as well as destroying evidence against the Singhs, an officer from Tulinj police station said, adding, “No arrest has been made so far as the couple has applied for anticipatory bail.”

According to the police, after the labourer, Satyendra Mishra, 42, was electrocuted, he was rushed to a hospital on the Nalasopara-Vasai Link Road, where he was declared dead due to electrocution. “Singh had then told the police that he died in Vasai East, following which an accidental death report was registered at the Achole police station,” the officer added.

The body was handed over to the victim’s family after an autopsy the next day, and it was taken to his hometown in Uttar Pradesh three days later.

Meanwhile, while investigating the matter, the police unearthed that Mishra died due to electrocution while installing lights inside the marriage hall and not at Vasai as the couple had claimed. When the police questioned people in Vasai in the open space, the residents confirmed that no such incident had occurred there.

“When we asked for the CCTV footage of September 14, Singh claimed that the CCTV of the hall was not working,” the officer said, adding that they managed to get the recordings from a neighbouring housing society.

“The footage revealed five to six men were carrying Mishra to the nearby clinic. Three of them were questioned, who confirmed that Mishra was electrocuted while fixing wires in the marriage hall. Mishra’s call data record showed that he had not travelled to Vasai at all that day,” the officer added.

Following the investigation, the police registered a case of death due to negligence against Singh and his wife. A few months before the incident, the locals had written to the distribution company to disconnect the electricity supply, which was obtained illegally, of the illegal marriage hall.

Thereafter, the Maharashtra State Electricity Board issued notices to the marriage hall for faulty meters. Besides, the landowner of the premises approached the court to get the land evacuated, claiming that Singh had usurped his land and built the marriage hall illegally. “For 10 years the marriage hall was functioning without paying us any rent,” the landowner said on the condition of anonymity.