In Vellore-Vellore, a suffocating father and daughter were tragically killed in a smog caused by an explosion of an ‘electric bike’.
Durai Verma, 49, of Chinna Allapuram, Vellore; He ran a photo studio in Vellore Tolkien. His wife, Mallika, died a few years ago. His daughter Mohanapreethi, 13; She was staying in her grandmother’s house in Polur, Thiruvannamalai district and was studying in the eighth standard. Son Avinash, 10, lived with father. Mohana Preethi Vellore came to see her father in ‘Okinawap Racebro’ last 24.
A few days ago, Duraivarma bought an electric bike called ‘Okinawa Ricebro’ for Rs 40,000. It is customary to charge the battery for two hours daily at night. As the charge continued to rise, the battery overheated and exploded with a terrifying noise at 2:30 a.m., including his ‘Yamaha’ petrol bike parked nearby.
Also, items such as electric wire, bed, chair and fan in the house were burnt. Durai Varma and his daughter Mohanapreeti tried to leave. They went into the toilet and closed the door, unable to get out, as the fire burned away and there was heavy smoke.
Old batteries
When the Bhagayam police and fire department extinguished the fire and went inside, they found that both the father and daughter had died due to suffocation caused by smoke inside the toilet. Son Avinash escaped as the relative went home. Bhagat police are investigating.
Police said, ‘Such accidents are caused by buying locally made electric bikes with old batteries at a lower price.’ Alagiriraju / 1987/4: 0726.3.22 / Salem / Edit 2: Ramachandran / 1985/4: 10