Investigations into the electrocution of a worker while pruning a tree at New Alaknanda Society in Vashi Sector 14 revealed that the office bearers of the society had allegedly forced the worker to trim higher branches.
The deceased, identified as Gautam Yadav (45), and four more workers had been assigned to prune the branches of around 50 trees in the society since June 7. According to police, Yadav had told the society office bearers that he would not prune the higher branches as there was a high tension wire passing by and there were no security measures for them.
“Initially, the society agreed to it, but on June 10, the office bearers told Yadav to prune the higher branches as well and if he fails to do so, he would not pay the wages of that day. Hence, Yadav climbed higher. Due to the wind, the high tension wire touched the branches and Yadav got electrocuted,” a police official from Vashi police station said.
The Vashi police, hence, booked the office bearers of the society. “The worker died due to lack of any safety measurement by the society and hence the manager and other office bearers have been booked. No arrests are made yet,” Pramod Toradmal, police inspector of Vashi police station said.
Ramlingaiah Gajaram, chairman of the society, said, “The one mentioned in the FIR as manager is our office boy. The worker was told not to cut any branches near the high-tension wire. On the day of the incident, he was supposed to trim the branches of other areas using a machine. He had cut those branches in an uneven way and we had asked him to cut the area using a machine to make it even. We were sitting in the office when the incident occurred. We didn’t even know that he had come for work that day. We had a contract with him and there was no question of cutting the daily wages.”