Sunar was caught by open electric wire hanging out from the tent of a small hotel where he was working as a helper. An eyewitness said, “There were wires hanging from the tent and he died on the spot after being caught by the wire.”[break]
He added, “The incident took place also due to heavy rain in Delhi on Tuesday evening which aggravated the situation.”
Govind´s friends and family members have said that he died due to negligence on the part of the management. “The open wires were hanging like that for quite sometime. This shows the management´s negligence,” a friend of Govind who did not want to be named told Republica.
The restaurant, Metro Gill, is located at Sandesh Vihar in Pritam Pura locality of Delhi. Its owner, Manish Goel, has refused to compensate the aggrieved family. “We sought a compensation of 12 lakh Indian rupees, but Goel has refused outright stating that it was an accident,” Ganga Bahadur Sunar, the deceased´s uncle said. “The owner wants to get away by giving IRs 100,000. What can we do? We are poor and we need to get back to our village to observe the 13-day mourning ritual.”
Govind´s body was cremated Wednesday evening. Govind lived with his father Gam Bahadur Sunar, who has been living in Delhi for years.
The police at Saraswati Bihar station too have termed the case an “accident”. Speaking to Republica, sub-inspector Lalit Kumar said, “It is a case of death due to electric shock and no one can be blamed.” He refused to give further details.
Dr Sudesh Kumar of the Jahangirpuri Hospital where Govind´s body was taken after the incident for post-mortem, said, “It seems that the cause of death is electrocution.” But he refused to divulge into other details.
Asked to comment, Kabi Karki, the coordinator of Help Nepali Mission in Delhi said, “There are now rising cases of deaths among Nepali laborers in Delhi and in most cases the actual cause of the death remains a mystery.”
“It is common here that employees get away by paying meager compensation to the victims´ families and the police too usually side with the Indian owners,” Karki said, adding, “In Govind´s case, his body was hastily taken to the hospital and then cremated even before we could reach the scene of the incident. There is no guarantee that his family will now be compensated.”
“To hush up things, the authorities usually try to hand over the body as quickly as possible leaving the dealings between the victim´s family and the employee inconclusive,” he added.
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