Two Men Electrocuted and Crushed While Allegedly Stealing Cable from High-Voltage Tower in Beed
In a tragic incident in Beed district, two men lost their lives after being electrocuted and subsequently crushed by a collapsing high-voltage power transmission tower. The event occurred on Saturday night in Kaij taluka, where the victims were allegedly part of a six-member gang attempting to cut and steal valuable cable wires.
Attempted Cover-Up by Accomplices
According to police reports, the remaining four accomplices panicked and tried to conceal the true nature of the deaths. They transported the bodies in a four-wheeler to two different hospitals, falsely claiming the victims had died in a road accident. The bodies were first taken to a hospital in Ambajogai, Beed, and then moved nearly 130 kilometers away to a private hospital in Parbhani under the Nanalpeth police station limits.
Doctors at the Parbhani hospital grew suspicious upon examining the injuries, which were inconsistent with a road accident. They alerted the police, treating the case as medico-legal. During preliminary interactions, one of the accomplices partially disclosed to a doctor that the victims had come into contact with an electric pole and suffered a fatal shock in Kaij.
Police Investigation Unravels the Truth
Suraj Gunjal, the Parbhani additional superintendent of police, stated that the men became evasive when questioned by police about the sequence of events. "They kept giving evasive answers and later fled the hospital premises," he said. Parbhani police subsequently alerted their counterparts in Kaij about the suspicious deaths.
Acting on these inputs, Kaij police began investigating and visited multiple locations indicated by the suspects as the alleged accident site. Inspector Swapnil Unawane of the Kaij police station revealed that even before receiving information from Parbhani, they had detained two suspects from Naholi village after locals caught them on suspicion of theft. "During questioning, they revealed that the deceased were their accomplices. The actual spot of the incident is around 5km from Naholi village," he explained.
On-Site Inspection and Arrests
A police team inspected the high-voltage transmission tower on Sunday, where the electrocutions were believed to have occurred. Investigators suspect the gang was attempting to steal cable wires when the accident took place, leading to the tower's collapse and crushing the victims.
So far, three accused have been arrested:
- Ashok Gaikwad (24), a resident of Patraud currently staying at Anandgaon in Beed's Majalgaon taluka
- Vaijnath Kadam (20), from Kothrud in Majalgaon taluka
- Suraj Giram (21) from Mednarkarwadi in Pune
The police have registered an FIR under BNS section 310 for the dacoity attempt. A search is underway to trace the remaining four to five accused who fled after abandoning the bodies. Further investigation is in progress to establish the full sequence of events and determine the extent of the gang's involvement in similar thefts.
