Staffers granted bail as KE offers compensation package for injured boy

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday granted bail to seven K-Electric (KE) employees who were booked in a case related to eight-year-old Mohammad Umer who had his arms amputated after he suffered electric shocks from a high- tension wire in Ahsanabad.

The incident had taken place in Ahsanabad’s Sector-4 off the Super Highway on August 25. As a result of the electric shocks, both of the boy's arms were badly burnt and doctors had to amputate them in order to save his life.

The KE employees were granted bail after the power utility offered to pay compensation to the injured boy and his family. They were arrested after the SITE Super Highway police registered a case against them under Section 337 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

During the hearing of bail applications, a counsel for the KE informed the SHC that the power utility had offered a compensation package for the welfare of the injured without admission of any liability, without prejudice to its defence and only as a gesture of goodwill. The lawyer submitted that the offer was executable upon the withdrawal of an FIR against the applicants and the acceptance of the offer by the family as full and final settlement.

The KE counsel informed the SHC that the power utility would pay Rs1 million in cash to the family and bear all expenses for providing prosthetic arms to the boy, besides meeting medical expenses till the boy was 24 years old. The KE also offered to pay for domestic travel of parents with accommodation.

The power utility has also offered that it will bear all educational expenses of the boy till he acquires a master’s degree from any institution of Pakistan. It has further pledged to pay a monthly amount of Rs25,000 to the family. The child has also been promised a job at the KE once he is 24 years old, the nature of which will depend on his educational qualification till that age.

According to the proposed settlement, the KE will also pay a cash amount equivalent to 300 power units every month to the household. It has also been offered that there will be an annual increase of five per cent in the monthly payment if the Sindh government bears all expenses for the treatment of the boy abroad as the government has announced.

A single bench comprising Justice Salahuddin Panhwar directed the investigation officer to place the agreement between the parties before the magistrate concerned for the disposal of the case. Meanwhile, the bench granted bail to the applicants against an amount of Rs50,000 each.