Couple electrocuted after touching apartment gate in Kodambakkam

CHENNAI: An elderly couple in Kodambakkam, both retired government officials were electrocuted on Saturday night after they touched the metal gate of their apartment complex, in which electricity had passed. Preliminary investigations revealed that the metal gate was fixed with gate lights and police suspect electricity to have passed from a wire onto the gate.

“It is still not clear who touched the gate first, but the couple were found unconscious near the gate by a neighbour,” a police official said.

The couple, Moorthy (65) and his wife, Banumathi (61), lived in an apartment on Rathinammal street in Kodambakkam. Moorthy retired from the Income-Tax department and his wife retired from the forensic sciences department.

On Saturday night, a neighbour, who stays opposite the apartment, noticed the couple lying unconscious for a long time and when he touched the gate, he too suffered electric shock and then informed the authorities.

Ashok Nagar police reached the scene on information and after switching off power supply for the neighbourhood, they secured the elderly couple and moved them to a hospital where they were declared brought dead.

Police moved their bodies to the government hospital for autopsy. The couple did not have any children. Their relatives have been informed, police said.