Pune:A first-year MBA (agri-business management) student succumbed on Tuesday to injuries suffered from a severe shock on March 14 while trying to draw water from a cooler at the state-run College of Agriculture (CoA) mess.
Police identified the deceased as Chaitanya Kundlik Chavan (23), hailing from Ashti in Beed district. He was undergoing treatment in a private hospital.
Senior inspector Girish Dighavkar of Shivajinagar Police Station said, “We are registering an accidental death in this connection and will investigate the matter to fix responsibility.”
Repeated attempts by to contact CoA associate dean Mahanand Mane for comment proved unsuccessful.
Rajendrakumar Patil, registrar, Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth (MPKV), Rahuri, the state agriculture university under which the CoA functions, said, “I was informed about the accident. I will be writing to all agriculture colleges under us to ensure that safety audit is conducted, not just electricity and fire, but also structural safety audit as many of the colleges are in old structures.”
Chaitanya had finished his dinner and gone to fetch water when the incident occurred. His roommate, Akshay Suryavanshi, said, “The water cooler was not cooling. So he plugged it again, and the moment he touched the tap, he received a shock and got stuck. The boy standing behind him tried to help but couldn’t. Then someone switched off the power. Chaitanya collapsed, briefly stood up and screamed, and then lost consciousness.” Students pointed out that they are strictly forbidden from wearing footwear inside the mess-a rule that may have contributed to the severity of the shock.
Chaitanya’s father Kundlik Chavan, a marginal farmer, said he received a call around 8:45 pm on March 14 from a COA staffer informing him about his son’s accident after which he arrived in Pune at 2am. “He was on ventilator support at Jehangir Hospital. Doctors told us his brain had suffered severe damage,” said Kundlik. He noted that the college has been providing some financial assistance to the family.
The state govt’s electrical inspector, NG Suryavanshi, “As per safety protocol all electrical connections should have protective tripping devices to prevent overloads, short circuits, and earth leakage. If there was a tripper, it would have tripped the moment the boy came in contact with electricity. The connection would have snapped instantly. But it appears that the proper protection wasn’t there. It is the responsibility of the institutions to ensure that all fire and electrical safety norms are followed.”
In a statement, Jehangir Hospital said, “The patient was brought to the emergency department in an unresponsive state. On arrival, the patient had no carotid pulse and no spontaneous respiratory efforts. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was initiated immediately. Initial cardiac rhythm was ventricular tachycardia (VT), for which defibrillation shocks were administered. The patient was intubated, and advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) protocols were followed. As per the accompanying friend, the patient had collapsed prior to arrival, and CPR was initiated en route to the hospital. No entry or exit wounds were identified. MRI brain suggests hypoxic brain insult (damage caused by lack of oxygen to the brain). The patient passed away at 01:11pm on Tuesday. The cause of death will be ascertained after post-mortem. Police were informed when we received the patient and after death for the post-mortem.”
