Minutes Before Woman Died At Delhi Station, Teen Was Electrocuted 16 Km Away

Just half an hour before a 34-year-old woman got electrocuted in front of her children at the New Delhi railway station on Sunday, a 17-year-old died in another part of the city while trying to wade through a street filled with water into which a live wire had fallen.

The death of 17-year-old Sohail has come to light on a day the National Human Rights Commission sent notices to the chairman of the Railway Board, the Delhi government and the city police over the woman's death, pointing to "life-threatening lapses" and "apparent negligence of the authorities".

Sohail, a Bengaluru resident, had come to his uncle's house in south Delhi's New Friends Colony about 45 days ago for his holidays. He used to stay at his uncle's house during the day and go to the house of another relative, Jamal, in East Delhi's Seemapuri at night to sleep.

Amid heavy rain since Saturday night, the teenager left Jamal's house early on Sunday to return to his uncle's house. He reached Taimoor Nagar near his uncle's house around 5 am and found that a street was waterlogged. When he stepped into the water to get across, passersby heard Sohail scream and collapse. They noticed a wire in the water and called the police, who got the power disconnected

Members of Sohail's family - which is originally from West Bengal - said he was taken to a hospital, where he was declared dead. The police have registered a complaint and begun an investigation. 

Half an hour later and 16 km away from Taimoor Nagar, Sakshi Ahuja, a 34-year-old teacher, reached New Delhi railway station around 5:30 am with her children - aged seven and nine - father and other members of her family. She held on to an electric pole to avoid puddles when she suffered a massive electric shock, causing her death.

The National Human Rights Commission today sent notices over Sakshi's death and said in a statement that besides civic and electricity authorities, the Indian Railways also "seemingly failed to keep a vigil on such life-threatening lapses" at the station - which is one of the busiest public places of Delhi - news agency PTI reported. 

Taking cognisance of a media report, the commission observed that the events mentioned in the report, if true, amount to a "grave violation" of the human rights of the victim and her family due to the "apparent negligence of the authorities contributing to waterlogging and open electrical wires".

Speaking to NDTV yesterday, Sakshi's father Lokesh Kumar Chopra said she did not receive any help or first aid since there was no ambulance, doctors or police at the spot. The family could leave the station only after 40 minutes as all exits were clogged with vehicles and Sakshi died on the way to the hospital, which was just a short distance away. 

"The Railway officials informed us that action will be taken but not seeing any action being taken till now... Our system is not improving... we are making high-quality trains like Vande Bharat, but have been unable to install proper infrastructure at stations... there are no facilities despite the huge footfall," Mr Chopra, whose family was on its way to Chandigarh by the railways' newest, state-of-the-art train, had said.