A four-member inquiry into the death of a lawyer from electrocution in Bhopal’s MP Nagar has held engineers of the Bhopal Municipal Corporation’s electricity wing responsible, prompting the suspension of an assistant engineer and a recommendation for action against an executive engineer.
BMC commissioner Sanskriti Jain ordered the immediate suspension of assistant engineer Sumit Singh after receiving the report on Friday. Singh is on deputation to the civic body from the electricity department of the Public Works Department, where he had been posted as a sub-engineer.
In a separate communication, Jain recommended the immediate suspension of executive engineer Ashish Shrivastava, a Class 1 officer on deputation to the BMC. The recommendation was sent to the principal secretary, energy, because Shrivastava was posted to the municipal corporation through an order of the urban development and housing department.
The inquiry was constituted by the Bhopal district collector on the instructions of the chief minister after the lawyer’s death on September 27. The four-member committee was led by additional district magistrate Sumit Pandey and included chief medical and health officer Manish Sharma, executive controller in the electricity department Mohd Javed and superintendent engineer Padeep Singh Chauhan.
Pandey declined to disclose the details of the report, describing it as confidential. However, the disciplinary action against Singh and the recommendation concerning Shrivastava indicate that officials responsible for the electricity infrastructure in the area were held accountable for negligence, according to the report and the actions that followed.
The incident occurred at about 7.30pm near DB Mall in MP Nagar, one of Bhopal’s major commercial areas. Police said the lawyer, identified as Tiwari, had parked his vehicle in a lane opposite the mall and was crossing the road with a friend through an unsafe divider cutpoint. He came into contact with an electric pole and a protruding iron rod and collapsed after suffering an electric shock.
Traffic police personnel posted nearby reached the spot and administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation before taking him to a private hospital. He was later shifted to AIIMS Bhopal, where doctors declared him dead.
According to sources cited in the inquiry report, the committee held assistant engineer Sumit Singh responsible for negligence and recommended action against executive engineer Ashish Shrivastava. Singh was suspended with immediate effect for alleged negligence and dereliction of duty in the responsibilities assigned to him.
The case has placed attention on the responsibility of municipal electricity officials for maintaining and securing poles, exposed electrical components and infrastructure located beside busy public roads. The immediate suspension and the recommendation for further action are the next administrative steps arising from the collector-ordered inquiry.
