KARACHI: Police on Saturday filed an interim investigation report for disposal of a case against K-Electric regarding the death of a man from electrocution during recent rains in ‘A-class’.

A-class reports pertain to those cases in which accused persons are unknown or untraceable.

However, the court declined to accept the report directing the investigation officer of the case to file a final report within one week.

Shaikh Saad Ahmed, 31, had died after suffering an electric shock during the recent rains on July 29 within the remit of the Paposh Nagar police station. The victim’s brother Shaikh Waqas Ahmed lodged an FIR under Section 322 (manslaughter) of the Pakistan Penal Code against K-Electric.

On Saturday, the IO, Sub-Inspector Shah Faisal Khan, filed an interim investigation report under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code before Additional District and Sessions Judge (West) Haleem Ahmed.

In the report, the IO stated that he visited the place of the incident, prepared a sketch, collected evidence and recorded the statements of the witnesses. He said he sent letters to the medico-legal officers at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) and Dr Ziauddin Hospital to provide record of the medical treatment or medico-legal procedures of the victim.

However, the ASH management informed him that the victim’s relatives took his body home without completing medico-legal formalities, the IO said, adding that the private hospital management also said the victim was brought in an unconscious condition and his heirs took the body away without any medical treatment or completion of medico-legal procedure.

He stated that a notice seeking permission to exhume the body was sent to the complainant, who on Aug 8 filed an affidavit that the legal heirs did not want exhumation.

Regarding the complainant’s allegations that his brother was electrocuted because of negligence on the part of KE, the IO stated that letters had also been sent to a general manager of the power utility as well as the electrical inspector for Region-II Karachi to provide technical assistance.

He said that a report from the electrical inspector in this regard had not yet been received due to Eid holidays. But, the interim investigation report was silent about the reply of KE’s general manager.

The IO said as the time stipulated for completing investigation in the present case had passed, he requested the court to treat the interim report as the final one and accepted it for disposal of the case in ‘A-class’.

He submitted that further action would be taken after receiving the report of the electrical inspector.

However, the judge declined to accept the interim investigation report and directed the IO to submit a final report along with the report of the electrical inspector within one week.

According to the FIR, the complainant said that his younger brother, Shaikh Saad Ahmed, was at his maternal aunt’s home in the Bara Maidan area of Nazimabad on July 27. He along with other relatives took their children on a motorcycle during rain for a joyride.

At 6.30pm, a relative’s child Furqan, using someone’s mobile phone, called the complainant telling that Saad and a child had suffered an electric shock from an electric pole in the Sarrafa Bazaar near Block-5 in Paposh Nagar and that both were being shifted to the ASH.

It further stated that the doctors at the health facility said the victim had died, but the child survived.

The complainant further said that without completing any medico-legal formalities at the ASH, he shifted his brother to the Dr Ziauddin Hospital in an attempt to get his breathing restored, but doctors on duty confirmed to him that Saad had died from electrocution.

The complainant alleged that his brother died due to negligence and carelessness on the part of K-Electric officials concerned and action may be initiated against them.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2019