Daijiworld Media Network – Shimoga (SP)
Shimoga, Oct 20: A court in Sagar has sentenced Fr Jaison, priest of St Thomas Church, Ikkeri near Sagar, and Mescom junior engineer, Dinesh, to two years of imprisonment. They have been pronounced guilty of causing the death of Kumar, a Mescom employee due to their negligence, when he was working to shift a transformer near Ikkeri village on June 4, 2005.
It was alleged that electricity flowed on the reverse from a faulty inverter that was unauthorizedly installed at the nearby church. Dinesh, who was in charge of shifting the transformer, was said to be guilty of negligence by way of entrusting the work to the employee without ensuring clearance of the 11 kv line, not confirming that electricity was not flowing in the line, and not providing security equipment to the employee as per department rules.
After Mescom inspector, D Siddappa from Shimoga, conducted preliminary inquiry, a police complaint was filed. The rural police station personnel conducted investigation and filed charge sheet of criminal negligence against the accused.
Additional judicial magistrate, S Mahesh, who heard the case, pronounced the above verdict. Assistant public prosecutor, S Suresh Kumar, had appeared in the court on behalf of the prosecution.