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Bengal

Man dies after touching trident lamp post near Ekbalpore

Kolkata: An elderly man died of electrocution on Monday evening after he touched a trident lamp post while wading through a waterlogged street at Hossain Shah Road under Ekbalpore police station area.
Police sources informed that Maksud Alam (65) a resident of Ekbalopore Lane was coming out of Budi mosque after offering his evening prayers.
He was carrying an umbrella on one hand and tried to balance himself by holding the lamppost in front of the mosque as the pavement was submerged. He was electrocuted and immediately fell on the road. The locals took him to SSKM Hospital where he was declared brought dead.
"Initially, we were apprehensive of getting electrocuted if we touch him. But some of us mustered the courage seeing him lying motionless and took him to the hospital where he was declared brought dead," Zahid Sheikh, a local resident said.
A senior official of KMC's lighting department said that there has been rampant hooking in the area. "The level of water was over the red tape of CESC's feeder box. The person was unable to see that the feeder box was open," the official said.
KMC officials subsequently inspected the area and sealed the feeder box and some others that were in a precarious condition.
A senior CESC official, however, denied that there has been hooking in the area. "We had immediately stopped power supply to the feeder box as soon as we learnt about the incident. We will conduct a thorough probe to ascertain the cause of death," a senior CESC official said.
The incident on Monday brought back memories of August last year when a 14-year-old boy Yash Bengani returning home from tuition was electrocuted as he grabbed a trident lamp post to balance himself while wading through thigh-high water in Bhowanipore after a heavy downpour. The boy had held on to the lamp post because he was thrown off balance by a wave created by a car driving past him on Ramesh Mitra Road.
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