Navi Mumbai: An FIR was registered against the suspended NMMC (zone-1) executive engineer (electrical) Pravin Gade at Nerul police station Thursday evening in the incident of two college girls Ujwala Wagh (19) and Shubhangi Balkhande (17) sustaining severe electric shocks due to an exposed underground live electrical wire submerged on the water-logged road on the Mumbai carriageway of the Sion-Panvel highway near Nerul flyover on June 30 around 12.30 pm, reports George Mendonca. The girls had alighted at the traffic signal from a share auto rickshaw after returning from college and were walking through the flooded road to reach a stationery shop.Following the incident as political leaders and workers of various political parties separately staged sit-in protests in the cabin of NMMC commissioner Kailas Shinde demanding immediate suspension of the concerned official, the civic chief had suspended Pravin Gade on July 1 after a preliminary inquiry into the electric shocks incident found him prima facie responsible for negligence, as he was the concerned officer responsible for NMMC’s electrical department in the zone-1 area where the incident occurred. Thus, holding him accountable for allegedly failing to monitor, review and control the electrical work under his jurisdiction. NMMC chief Shinde had also initiated disciplinary proceedings against Gade for his alleged dereliction of duty.The police complaint was lodged on Thursday by the college girl Ujwala Wagh after she and her friend Shubhangi Balkhande were discharged from Fortis Hospital, Belapur, on Thursday morning as they recovered completely after treatment for 10 days. The accused suspended NMMC officer Pravin Gade was booked under the BNS section for the offence of negligent act endangering human life or personal safety of others.Nerul police claimed that an FIR was registered against the accused Pravin Gade after receiving information from the NMMC administration in response to the correspondence regarding whose negligence had caused the electric shock incident.Subhash Balkhande (42), the father of the college girl Shubhangi, said, “Though Nerul police have registered an FIR against suspended NMMC executive engineer Pravin Gade, the actual culprit is the concerned NMMC contractor, who neglected the maintenance of the underground electrical cable, resulting in the breaking of the cable and exposure of live electric wire, causing the mishap. Fortunately, my daughter Shubhangi and her friend Ujwala survived despite suffering severe electric shocks. Now that my daughter has been discharged from the hospital after complete recovery, I will be going to Nerul police station on Friday evening to seek to register an FIR against NMMC’s concerned contractor for his act of negligence that could have been fatal for my daughter and her friend.”
