Bhubaneswar, June 5: Three persons arrested for kidnapping a Central Electricity Supply Utility (Cesu) superintending engineer yesterday were today sent to jail after their bail pleas were rejected by a local court here.
The accused were identified as Mahesh Paltasingh, Bishnu Chotray and Buddhimant Nayak. These youths from Sidhipur village under Jatani police station had kidnapped Cesu superintending engineer Prasanna Kumar Das, who had come to meet the family members of the victims of an accident at a private hospital. Later, police rescued the engineer from the kidnappers at Kalinga Vihar Square and arrested them.
Das later lodged a complaint with Chandrasekharpur police that booked the accused under sections 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
According to sources, while repairing a 33 KV power cable near a private engineering college in Janla on Friday night, a sudden flow electricity caused the death of lineman Sudarshan Martha and injured five others including two junior engineers.
There was high drama on yesterday morning when agitated family members gheraoed the superintending engineer who had come to meet them. Some relatives of the deceased kidnapped the engineer in the ambulance in which Martha’s body was taken to his village.
The Khandagiri police blocked the national highway on the city outskirts and arrested the kidnappers. Later, they were handed over to the Chandrasekharpur police. The story did not end here. The villagers later ransacked the Cesu office and blocked the road connecting Jatani to the national highway demanding compensation for the family members of the deceased. The deputy commissioner of police and other senior police officers rushed to the spot. Cesu officials also rushed to the spot and assured the villagers.
“The family members of the deceased are to be provided with compensation worth more than Rs 10 lakh and his wife will be given pension. Besides, the cost of treatment for the injured will be borne by Cesu and they will get full salary for the period of hospitalisation,” said Cesu chief executive officer B.C. Jena.
Jena also said that an enquiry by the chief electrical inspector had been ordered and the report would be submitted soon.
Talking on safety measures to be adopted by the employees, he said that all employees working on the field had been trained properly. “But they are not adopting the precautionary measures. Had they used the safety equipment, the accident would have been averted,” said Jena.
