Two engineering students died in Moinabad near Hyderabad after they came into contact with an illegal live-wire fence installed around a paddy field to keep away wild boars, police said. The students were reportedly trying to leave the area after a police patrol vehicle approached a group gathered in nearby agricultural fields.
The deceased were identified as Mokshay Charan, 20, of Upparapally, and D Yashwant, 20, of Balkampet. Both were third-year students at a private engineering college and lived in Hyderabad, according to police. The incident occurred around 2 am near the Moinabad-Peddamangalaram road.
Police said a patrol team on routine night duty noticed several two-wheelers parked by the roadside and a group of youngsters sitting in adjacent fields. On seeing the police vehicle, some members of the group allegedly left on their two-wheelers, while Charan and Yashwant ran across a nearby paddy field. They reportedly touched the electrified wire laid around the field and died at the spot.
The students had been part of a group of friends who gathered after a birthday celebration in Rajendranagar, police said. The group, which included eight other students, allegedly bought liquor near Bandlaguda before travelling to the agricultural fields at Peddamangalam in the early hours of Saturday.
The wire had been installed by tenant farmer Raji Reddy of Peddamangalam to protect the crop from wild boars, Moinabad sub-inspector K Ramakrishna said. Preliminary investigation found that the fence covered nearly half an acre of paddy and had been connected to a power source.
The other students alerted the police patrol team after the incident. Officers reached the field and began an investigation into how the live wire had been installed and connected. The case was registered against Reddy under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which concerns culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The accused had not been arrested at the time of the report. The case highlights the danger posed by unauthorised electric fencing on the rapidly changing agricultural edges around Hyderabad, where roads, settlements, farms and recreational activity increasingly meet. In this incident, the immediate police investigation is focused on the installation of the live wire and the circumstances leading to the two deaths.
Police said further investigation would examine the electrical connection, the fencing around the field and the events involving the student group before the electrocution. The legal process will proceed under the culpable homicide case registered by Moinabad police.
