Six goats were electrocuted on Saturday night after coming in contact with live electric poles at sector 10 in Kharghar. The poles recently underwent maintenance work by the Panvel Municipal Corporation officials.The goats, worth ₹1.20 lakh in the livestock market, were meant to be sacrificed for Eid al-Adha (Bakrid), which will be observed on June 29.
Owner of the goats, Naem Lala Qureshi, who runs a mutton shop in Kharghar, had shut his business for the past eight days to look after the livestock, each weighing around 50kgs.On Saturday night, he took the goats out for grazing when one by one, he saw them falling unconscious after coming in contact with the pole, resulting in deaths. Qureshi who along with his two sons, 13 and 17, took 15 goats out for grazing. “Suddenly one of my goats got electrocuted while walking on the footpath near the electric pole. One of my sons saw and immediately warned another son and asked him not to touch them and step behind. I saw one by one two more got electrocuted on the same pole and three others got electrocuted at the adjacent pole. I lost a total of six goats worth a total of ₹1.20lakh. Each goat was about 50 kg,” Qureshi said.
Advocate Balesh Bhojane, a Kharghar resident, and a member of the Kharghar Forum has alleged that Panvel Municipal Corporation officials had conducted maintenance work on the electric poles a few weeks ago and the shoddy work done by them led to the incident. Meanwhile, senior police inspector Rajiv Shejwal from Kharghar police station alleged that the goats were tied to the electricity pole and hence no action has been taken against anyone. Shejwal said that they are investigating the matter.Qureshi rubbished the allegations, “It is not true that the goats were tied to the pole. How can anyone even go near an electric pole that is emitting such high electric shock? It is otherwise a very busy area with people walking over the footpath but since it was heavily raining, there was no public outside. The six goats who walked on the footpath died while the ones who walked on the road were saved.”