19-Year-Old Worker Electrocuted at Closed Ganesh Immersion Pond in Jogeshwari

A 19-year-old worker died of electric shock in Mumbai's Jogeshwari area on Sunday after he entered a closed artificial pond meant for Ganesh idol immersion, officials said.

The incident took place in the afternoon at Shyam Nagar Lake, where the worker, identified as Rohit Bhimu Rathod, stepped into one of the artificial ponds that had already been shut for immersion.

Rathod was rushed to a nearby civic-run trauma care hospital, where doctors declared him dead. He had been engaged for the work by the contractor concerned, a civic official said.

According to information from the Assistant Commissioner of the K/North ward in the western suburbs, five artificial immersion ponds had been set up at the lake. Four of them were closed after midnight.

The death came on a day when the city recorded another electrocution linked to Ganesh festivities. In the early hours of Sunday, two people, including an eight-year-old girl, died and at least four others were injured after they suffered an electric shock while standing in a queue for darshan near a Ganesh pandal in the Lalbaug area.