Palakkad: A woman was found dead in the backyard of her house in Chittadi, around 40 km from Palakkad, on Wednesday morning. According to police, she was electrocuted by an illegal power fence that had been set up to trap wild boars.
According to a source with Mangalam Dam police, it was a fish vendor who found the deceased, Karoor Puthanpurakkal Gracy, lying face down in the mud, around 8.30 am.
“Gracy has been living in the house for the past 27 years. Her husband Chackochan died three years ago and she has been living alone since. An electrical fence had been set up around the house using antenna cable as she had planted tapioca and ginger on 20 cents of land and wanted to ward off trouble from wild boars. It is believed that she forgot to switch off the connection to the fencing and fell on the same. At the time of finding the body, the right hand was holding on to the wire,” said the source. They also said the entire fencing and power connection to it had been done haphazardly.
Prima facie, police authorities have concluded Gracy died of electrocution between Monday late evening and Tuesday morning. “Her face had started decomposing,” the officer reasoned.
Locals said that Gracy had interacted with her relatives over the phone and visited the nearby church two days ago. The body was taken to the Palakkad district hospital for postmortem. The couple has no children.
In a similar incident which occurred last week, two youths lost their life at Karingarapully about 37 km away from Gracy’s location, after suffering an electric shock from an illegal power fence set up for wild boars. The deceased youths – Satheesh (22) of Kalanditharayil House, Pudussery, and Shijith (22) of Thekkumkunnil House, Kottekkad -- who were involved in an altercation case, were electrocuted when they ran helter-skelter on seeing a police party. The police later arrested the land owner Anandan Ambalaparambu (52) who confessed that he buried the youngsters when he found them lying dead. Anandan had erected the power fence illegally on his farm by transmitting electricity from a motor installed in his house.