High Court notices over electrocution deaths

Justice Nagesh Bheemapaka of Telangana High Court on Wednesday directed the State and the Central governments along with the TGSPDCL, the GHMC and Bharti Airtel over the death of five persons due to electrocution the previous day at Ramanthapur, Uppal in Hyderabad.

Observing that everyone should come out with solutions and not the contentions like “we are innocents” in such cases, the judge directed the authorities to explain their stand within 48 hours. The judge was hearing a petition filed by Bharti Airtel by way of lunch motion contending that it had no role in the accident that resulted in electrocution leaving five persons dead.

The company maintained that it secured permissions from the TGSPDCL to lay optic fibre cables on electricity poles as per the Telecommunications Act-2023. In a related development, Lokayukta Justice A. Rajashekher Reddy took up newspaper reports relating to the deaths as a suo moto case and sought a report from the authorities by September 11.