Kancheepuram college student steps on live wire, electrocuted; locals protest outside EB office, block highway

CHENNAI: A 17-year-old college student died after allegedly stepping on a live electric wire lying on the ground at Vallapakkam near Walajabad in Kancheepuram district on Sunday.

The deceased was identified as Varaprasad of Vallapakkam. He was a first-year BCom student at a private college in Pallavaram. The police said that Varaprasad went to a grove near Vallapakkam along with three other friends to cut firewood when the incident happened.

The trio were cutting firewood at a grove near the Kancheepuram-Chengalpattu bypass road when Varaprasad allegedly stepped on a severed electric wire lying on the ground. He suffered an electric shock and was thrown away. He died at the spot, the police said.

On receiving information from his friends, personnel from the Walajabad police station reached the spot, recovered his body and sent it to the Kancheepuram district government hospital for postmortem.

Meanwhile, residents alleged that the EB officials had failed to remove the severed power cable and condemned their callousness. More than 500 residents from Vallapakkam gathered at the Walajabad electricity board office and staged a protest.

The residents later blocked the Walajabad-Tambaram Highway, and the traffic was affected for around an hour. The police reached the spot and held talks with the protesters. They pacified the protesters, assuring them that appropriate action would be taken, after which they dispersed.