Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Mar 31: A boy, who was playing cricket with several other children, died after he came in contact with high tension wire passing by at low level. The deceased was 12-year-old Puneeth, resident of Hosapalya main road here.He was a student of government higher primary school in Bandepalya.

The incident occurred when he was playing cricket at Somasandra Palya near H S R Layout on Sunday March 29 evening, the policemen said.

The area is witnessing works undertaken by the municipality. Lot of digging has been conducted and mud so extracted has been heaped at a place. When a ball hit by a friend went towards this heap, Puneeet ran towards the heap and scaled it. The moment he reached atop the heap, high tension cables that were sagging at a low level touched his head. The boy was taken to a hospital immediately but he died on the way, it is learnt.

The boy's parents, who are coolies, and other neighbours have complained to H S R Laout police station, about the negligence of Bescom in not taking care to keep the cables at safe height. The police too said that the death had occurred because of the negligence of Bommanahalli area Bescom. The locals got angry after an executive engineer of Bescom tried to pass responsbility by saying that the boy had not come in contact with live wire, but that his death occurred after his head hit a rock when falling.

The police have asserted that prima facie the boy died out of electrocution. They said postmortem report is awaited.