Kannur: A 36-year-old welder from Palakkad was electrocuted at a work site near Pazhayangadi in Kannur on October 30 -- barely an hour before he was to head home after finishing his job.

The deceased has been identified as Aneesh Mon, a native of Karappadam in Kizhakkanchery panchayat in Alathur constituency.

Pazhayangadi police have registered a case of unnatural death. Police said Aneesh was holding an iron pipe that touched an overhead power line, leading to the electrocution.

He is survived by his mother, Kamalam, and two sisters. Aneesh was unmarried, said Shahul Hameed, his coworker and friend, who was present at the site.

Shahul, Aneesh and a helper had arrived in Pazhayangadi on October 21 to work on a commercial building owned by Haneesh ACP at Motambram near Madayi. They stayed there for nine days to complete the job. “By morning, we had almost wrapped up and were packing to leave by 10.30 am,” said Shahul, a mini-truck driver from the same village and who transports welding materials for Aneesh.

Around 9.30 am, Aneesh was standing on the second-floor scaffolding with a metal pipe in hand when it brushed against power cables running dangerously close to the building. He fell nearly 40 feet.

Shahul and others rushed him to Crescent Hospital nearby. Aneesh had suffered burns on his back, legs, neck and arms. “His pulse had already weakened when we reached Crescent,” Shahul said. The hospital referred him to Kannur Government Medical College Hospital, Pariyaram, where he died during treatment.

The autopsy will be conducted on Friday morning, Shahul said, as he waits in Kannur to take Aneesh’s body back home.