Mumbai, Sep 20 — The aunt of the minor girl victim in the fatal electrocution incident near a Ganesh pandal in the Kalachowki area here on Sunday said that they had come to seek blessings of Lord Ganesh for the first time when the horrific incident occurred.
The tragic incident unfolded during the Ganesh festival celebrations near Kalachowki’s Mahaganpati pandal when the 8-year-old girl died after getting electrocuted. Four others sustained serious injuries. A second death was reported later, when officials said a woman in a hospital had also succumbed to her injuries.
Speaking to IANS, Kismati Yadav said they reached the area at around 2 a.m., joined the queue at around 2.15 a.m., and the incident occurred at around 2:40 a.m.
"There was a huge crowd, so we thought we would not go further and would take the child from the side. There was a shop selling ice cream and cold drinks, and there was some space there. We thought we would skip offering prayers, stand near the shop, and then return home. But as soon as we reached the shop, the crowd moved in there too, and chaos broke out,” she said.
The shopkeeper had put up a plastic sheet over his stall to protect it from the rain, she said. “Rainwater had collected on the plastic sheet. When the crowd pushed the water off the sheet, it came down on the people standing directly below it, and they were electrocuted,” she added.
Asked where they had come from, the victim’s aunt said they had travelled from Mankhor, Mandala, to witness Ganpati for the first time.
"We had come to see Ganpati for the first time in our lives, and this is how we were punished," she said.
"I think the electric current had already entered the water. There were tables set up there..."
About their demands, she said, “Our child was taken away. She will not come back. No one should ever have to face something like this. We are poor. We had come from Uttar Pradesh to see Ganpati. Please share our ordeal with as many people as possible so that something like this never happens again. Our child will not come back."