A 17-year-old boy died of electrocution on Wednesday night while walking through a waterlogged street in Thiruvottiyur, a northern suburb in Chennai, triggering protests from local residents who accused the electricity department of negligence.
The victim, identified as Nafael, a Class 12 student residing on Thangal Birbayilwan Dharga Street, was returning home after tuition when he stepped into stagnant rainwater near the Thangal Peer Pailwan Dargah and collapsed. According to eyewitnesses, locals used wooden logs and plastic pipes to move him out of the water. The boy was then taken to Stanley Government Hospital, where doctors declared him dead.
Nafael’s father, Altaf Hussain, said it was not an accident but a “sheer negligence and dereliction of duty.”
Following the boy’s death, a large crowd gathered at the site and blocked the road for over two hours, demanding action against the officials responsible.
Heavy rain had inundated the area earlier that evening, submerging roads. The residents alleged that the tragedy could have been averted if the authorities had acted on repeated complaints filed over the past 10 days. The street, they said, had been dug up recently for concrete laying, during which an underground power cable was damaged.
Residents told The Indian Express that the electricity department was alerted about it “multiple times” about 10 days ago, and that even “some residents reported electric shocks while walking in the area.”
