Sascha Wil­son

A man sus­pect­ed of try­ing to steal util­i­ty ca­bles in Bar­rack­pore was elec­tro­cut­ed yes­ter­day morn­ing. He has been iden­ti­fied as Casey de Sil­va, 23, of Aerides Dri­ve, Or­chid Gar­dens Pleas­antville.

The ca­ble is stripped for cop­per and then sold to scrap iron deal­ers, po­lice said.

In the last few months, sev­er­al peo­ple have been ar­rest­ed and charged for steal­ing TSTT ca­bles.

Ini­tial re­ports stat­ed that around 2 am an es­tate con­sta­ble with Través Se­cu­ri­ty Ser­vices Lim­it­ed was on du­ty when he heard a loud noise at the front of the build­ing along the Rochard Dou­glas Road. He then saw sparks em­a­nat­ing from a TSTT pole about 30 feet away. Up­on in­ves­ti­ga­tions, he saw a man in a black jer­sey and black and white cam­ou­flage pants hang­ing mo­tion­less from TSTT wires. There was al­so a pow­er out­age at near­by homes.

Po­lice found two hack­saw blades, a black Mar­vin Gaye hat, and a mul­ti­coloured Jans­port knap­sack on the ground near a TSTT pole.

In an ear­ly re­lease be­fore the man's iden­ti­ty was con­firmed, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) stat­ed that T&TEC se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cers re­ceived in­for­ma­tion from the Bar­rack­pore po­lice that some­one was elec­tro­cut­ed at Rochard Dou­glas Road. "Up­on in­ves­ti­gat­ing, a man was found slumped and mo­tion­less over ca­bles be­tween T&TEC LP 114 and 115 in the vicin­i­ty of a TSTT pole.

"It is be­lieved the vic­tim was cut­ting and steal­ing TSTT ca­bles in the area when the in­ci­dent oc­curred."

TSTT ca­bles were seen cut and hang­ing in var­i­ous ar­eas. The com­pa­ny in­di­cat­ed that elec­tric­i­ty was re­stored at 6 am yes­ter­day. Bar­rack­pore po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.