Violence broke out at in West Bengal's South 24 Paganas district after a youth was electrocuted on Tuesday while allegedly stealing power, police said.
Agitators ransacked the local office of the state power distribution company in Sarisha of Diamond Harbour area and trashed the office furniture, computers and power meters. A vehicle of the company was set on fire.
"K. Ansari, aged 17, was electrocuted. He was suspected to be stealing power and got panicked on seeing Power Department officials," police said.
Villagers alleged the accident took place due to "faulty works" done by the power distribution company's personnel.
"Power distribution company's officials were working on overhead power lines. They launched anti-power theft drive. The overhead cable fell on him soon after they completed works on the lines. The accident took place due to their faulty works," a villager said.
Dismissing the allegations, State Power Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said no anti-power theft programme was undertaken in the area by the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company.
"There was no anti-power theft programme in the area. What we were doing was installing of aerial bundled cables. These cables act as the insulator of the overhead power lines. Such works are going on across the state in a phased manner in order to reduce transmission losses. Stealing of power would be difficult due to insulation of power lines," he said.
According to an official of the power distribution company, the accident did not occur during their work.
"We conducted a raid against power theft in the village. There was no such accident during our works. We came to know about the accident after we returned to office," the official said.
--IANS
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