Anna Nagar Police Question GCC and TNPDCL Engineers Over Woman's Electrocution

Two assistant engineers from the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) and the Tamil Nadu Power Distribution Corporation Limited (TNPDCL) were questioned by the Anna Nagar police on Thursday in connection with the electrocution of a 59-year-old woman near the Anna Nagar Tower Metro station.

The victim, identified as Kalavathi, was a resident of Padi Pudunagar, where she lived with her husband Mohanraj and 28-year-old daughter Sangeetha. She worked as a housekeeping employee at a shop located in Anna Nagar.

According to police reports, Kalavathi left her home at around 9 pm on August 23 to go to church. Around 10.20 pm, she fell into a rainwater-filled pit that had been left uncovered for ongoing stormwater drain work near the metro station.

Live electric cables were lying exposed inside the open excavation. Kalavathi was electrocuted after falling into the pit. CCTV footage recovered from the area showed the woman struggling in the water before becoming completely motionless.

Upon being alerted to the incident, police rushed to the scene and transported Kalavathi to the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital. Medical personnel at the hospital examined her and declared her dead on arrival.

The police initially registered a case under Section 194 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which covers unnatural or suspicious deaths. The case was later altered to charges of negligence after the postmortem report confirmed that her death was caused by electrocution.

Anna Nagar police inspector Balasubramanian questioned the assistant engineers representing both the civic body and the power distribution company to investigate the lapses and circumstances that led to the open pit, exposed cables, and the subsequent fatal incident.