The irate residents of Duggan tied a Junior Engineer of Power Development Department of Basholi M&RE Sub Division with an electric pole after one person and five cattle were killed due to electric shock in the area some days back.
The police officer said that on Monday evening, a man, Ramesh Kumar (24) son of Jagdish Kumar of Duggan village, two buffaloes, cows and a dog were electrocuted due to short-circuit in the village transformer.
According to reports the JE of Sub Division, Bashioli Muzafar Sheikh who was the incharge of the area visited the Duggan on Tuesday during the cremation of Ramesh Lal who was killed after receiving the electric shock.
The people who had assembled at cremation ground shouted slogans against the PDD Department and tied the JE with electric pole. They held the Department responsible for the death of the villager as well as cattle and termed it the negligence of the PDD officials especially the field staff.
However, Deputy Commissioner, Kathua, Rohit Khajuria said the administration has ordered inquiry into the matter. He said the SSP Kathua has been asked to hold the probe.
He termed the allegations of the people baseless that Department was responsible for the short circuit as the same took place inside a private residence and the fault was in the house for which the Department can’t be held responsible.
He said the cattle also received electric shock inside the house and there was no fault of the Department.
The Executive Engineer, M&RE Kathua, Karam Chand termed the incident unfortunate. He said the Department is looking into the matter as there was no fault in the main line of PDD.
