• Judge notes KE received complaint of snapped wire at noon, but maintenance team did not visit area till 5pm
• Rejects KE’s claim that boy died due to KMC’s negligence

KARACHI: A court has directed the K-Electric (KE) to pay over Rs4.8 million in compensation to the parents of an eight-year-old boy, who had died from electrocution in 2017 due to negligence of the power supply company.

The parents of the deceased boy — Azhan Siddiqui — had filed a civil suit through their counsel Usman Farooq before senior Civil Judge (East) Ambreen Jamal, seeking compensation of Rs14.5 million under the Fatal Accidents Act, 1885, from the KE over the death of their young child, who died after electric wires snapped during a heavy downpour in 2017.

After hearing the counsel for the plaintiff and the defendant sides, the court ordered the KE to pay Rs4,819,040 in compensation with the mark-up at the prevailing bank rate from the date of decree till realisation.

Meanwhile, in a short statement, the KE spokesperson said, “It would be premature to comment as the judgement is not received by the company”.

The court noted in its detailed verdict that during the cross-examination, the authorised person of the defendant company admitted that the eight-year-old boy had died due to electrocution. It was also observed that the person also revealed that the KE was responsible for supplying electricity in the metropolis.

Regarding the registered complainant of lying down of a snapped wire on the street, the authorised person also admitted that from “2 to 5pm on Aug 23, 2017, no any maintenance team visited the complained area,” the court noted.

According to the plaintiff, on the day of the incident, the electric wires stretched overhead by the defendant for electricity distribution and transmission in Model Colony, Malir, snapped on the main street during the downpour due to a physical defect.

The plaintiff stated that this occurred because of negligence by the KE in failing to properly maintain the infrastructure.

The plaintiff further claimed that they had informed the KE about the issue, but no steps were taken to mitigate the danger. The parents submitted that on August 23, 2017, at around 5pm, the deceased boy was passing through the street outside his house when he came into contact with a live electric pole and suffered a severe electric shock which led to his death.

“Thus the breach of duty, lack of requisite protective measures/system with safety devices, lack of proper maintenance of electric wires pertaining to the said area by the defendant tantamount to an act of gross negligence, wrongful act, malfeasance and actionable wrong for which the defendant is liable to pay the damages/ compensation to the plaintiffs,” the counsel for plaintiff submitted before the court.

Meanwhile, in its written statement, the defendant submitted before the court that their team reached the site at 5:30pm and they “found that a pole was carrying current due to a piece of open wire dangling from KMC road light causing current in it”.

The defendant alleged that the “kunda wire of an old [street] light was not disconnected by the KMC staff”.

They added that the wire was left hanging in the air and came into contact with the pole, which resulted in the pole becoming live as a result of which the boy died.

They claimed the death of the boy occurred due to negligence on the part of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.

However, the court rejected the defendant’s pleas and noted that the KE failed to “bring on record any cogent and documentary evidence to prove its claim.”

It added that in the cross-examination, the KE admitted that they had received the complaint at noon time regarding current on electric pole but maintenance team did not visit the complained area between 2 to 5pm.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2024