Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Pune Agriculture College Student Dies After Water-Cooler Electric Shock

University leaders ordered a formal inquiry with safety audits across affiliated campuses.

Overview

  • Chaitanya Kundalik Chavan, 23, died in a Pune hospital on Tuesday after a March 14 electric shock from a water cooler at the College of Agriculture’s student mess.
  • Jahangir Hospital said he arrived unresponsive, received CPR with defibrillation for ventricular tachycardia, was intubated, and later showed hypoxic brain injury before dying on ventilator support.
  • Police completed a postmortem, returned the body to his family, and opened an accidental-death investigation at Shivajinagar Police Station.
  • Students held sit-ins on Wednesday alleging earlier complaints about the cooler and wider electrical faults, citing a barefoot rule in the mess, and they demanded suspensions, a campus dispensary for 1,500 students, and a full electrical audit.
  • MPKV’s vice-chancellor set up a committee under dean Mahanand Mane and ordered fire, structural, and electrical safety audits across colleges in 10 districts, while the campus added a rubber mat and sealed sockets at the cooler and officials noted such systems should include fault-tripping protection.