KARACHI: The ongoing police investigation into high-tension wire incident that amputated both arms of a kid took a new turn on Tuesday when it was revealed that some former employees of K-Electric are running their own company named ‘R-Electric’ in the outskirts of the city.
Our correspondent Nazir Shah reported that Super Highway police arrested three more suspects today on identification of seven people previously detained in connection to the incident. The three arrested men belong to the ‘R-Electric’ which operate in areas including Super Highway and Ahsanabad.
Former KESC workers, including activists belong to Muttahida Qaumi Movement, and some current K-Electric employees had jointly formed this company some years ago. The employees of the illegal company install PMTs in different villages and supply their own-printed bills to residents.
It is reported that the R-Electric employees charge average amount from each household, while the collected amount is shared between some officers of the K-Electric and people working for illegally-formed entity.
On the other side, the arrested suspects claim that K-Electric management in connivance with the police were trying to frame wrong charges against them in the case of high-tension wire issue to ‘bury’ the issue.
‘We work as electricians and we are assigned to look after maintenance and repairing issues in villages,” they said.
On August 31, Police had arrested seven employees of the K-Electric in the wake of incident causing amputation of both the arms of eight-year-old boy Umar, when a live wire fell on him on Aug 25.
Umar’s both arms had to be amputated by doctors due to severe burns he had sustained after an 11,000-Volt electrical wire fell on him in Ahsanabad Sector-4 off Superhighway where he was playing some ten days ago.
After the incident, the boy was rushed to a hospital where doctors diagnosed that his arms were wasted because of severe burns.
Burns Center In-Charge Dr Ahmer said they tried their best to save the arms but to no avail. They had no option but to cut the forelimbs as they were critically burnt, he said.
Parents of the victim had decided to take legal course against the power utility for its sheer negligence.
