Mid-Day

Mumbai, Jun 10: Saeena Begum (26) will find it difficult to forgive herself. Her desire to watch soap operas on cable television claimed the life of her husband Mohammed Kurmulla Sheikh (27) on Thursday.

Sheikh was electrocuted to death on Thursday morning, while trying to fix the cable wire on the television set at his home in Gandhi Nagar, Kandivli (W) at Saeena’s request. 

According to Saeena, their daughters Sabeeha (3) and Yasmin (one-and-a-half), had detached the cable wire from the television set on Wednesday night.

Saeena Begum with daughters Sabeeha and Yasmin. Saeena says she wanted to watch soap operas.

“They were playing near the TV, when they must have removed it,” she said.

On Thursday, as Sheikh, a tyre puncture mechanic, was leaving for work around 9.30 am, Saeena asked him to fix the cable wire.

“He was electrocuted the moment he picked up the cable wire lying next to the TV. He shouted and couldn’t free himself from the wire,” she recollected.

Saeena’s husband Mohammed Kurmulla Sheikh

Hearing Sheikh’s screams, their neighbour Rajesh Gupta tried to intervene. But by the time he could get a log to get the wire off, Sheikh was dead.

“Half his hand was completely burnt and he wasn’t breathing. Within seconds it was all over,” Gupta recollected. “Had I not asked him to fix the cable, he would have been alive,” Saeena wept.

Cable removed

Locals claim that during the whole day, people in the neighbourhood got a shock when they touched their televisions.

The cable connection was disconnected in the area, to prevent further casualties.