A habit that has virtually become the status statement of a generation that loves to stayed "logged on and plugged in" claimed a life in the city on Saturday when a 34-year-old man, who is believed to have dozed off in his bed with his earphones on and laptop on the charger, was electrocuted.
Sayan Chowdhury, a resident of Patuli who worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), was found dead under mysterious circumstances in his room. He had burn injuries on the front portion of his body. The laptop was partially charred and the power supply cord was also burnt. Police and fire department officials suspect he was electrocuted while using the laptop but were unsure if it happened while he was asleep or was still working.
Experts said this habit of using earphones while charging the laptop or going to sleep with the device still on the charger could be fatal. In Chowdhury's case, the DC adaptor attached to the power-supply cord may have failed, leading to a 230-volt alternating current surge into the laptop, turning it into a death trap. Or, the battery may have got overcharged and exploded, causing a fire and spilling lethal chemicals on him.
While police could not say if any such death had occurred in India, two youngsters - one from Romania and the other from New Zealand - were reportedly electrocuted while using laptops in 2009. Flavia Boricea (17), of Romania, died while trying to plug in her laptop from her bathtub. Police suspected she either tied to do so with wet hands or the laptop fell into the tub with the power cord still attached. Jason Allan Duke (15) was electrocuted while listening to music on his laptop. He had reportedly run an extension cord from his home to his yard where he was working on a vehicle.
The Chowdhurys live in a double-storeyed house at 41/5, Kendua Main Road in Patuli. While Sayan's parents occupy the ground floor, he lived with his wife in a room of the first. His wife Roshnai is also an employee of PwC. The couple had a child three months ago and Roshnai was still at her maternal home on Friday. Her husband visited her there in the evening and returned home around 9.30 pm. According to what the family told the police, Chowdhury had dinner and then went up to his room around 10.30 pm. Before leaving, he even asked his mother for a shawl as it got chilly in the early hours of the morning.
Around 6.30am on Saturday, the Chowdhurys' domestic help was on her way up to the roof of the house to hang up washing when she saw smoke billowing out of the room where Chowdhury and his wife slept. She raised the alarm and his parents came rushing up. When knocks on the door went unanswered, they called up the fire brigade and alerted locals. The door was finally broken down to reveal Chowdhury lying on the bed. The laptop was at his side, still open and connected to the switchboard through a power-supply cord. Chowdhury was taken to hospital where he was declared brought dead.
According to a fire department official, the evidence pointed to short-circuit. Prima facie, it seems that Chowdhury was electrocuted and did not die of burns. "It seems that he died instantaneously and got no opportunity to raise an alarm. Had there been a fire, he would certainly have got time to move away. A fire would also have caused much more damage than it actually did," the official said.
The police, however, are looking into all possibilities. "We have found no evidence of foul play. Prima facie it seems that the death was accidental. Only after forensic examinations can we ascertain whether the death was caused due to electrocution or a fire," said deputy commissioner of police Biswaroop Ghosh.
Experts said that such incidents are extremely uncommon. A tragedy is, however, possible if the adaptor attached to the power-supply cord fails. "There is no chance of a user getting electrocuted from a laptop by itself as the machine runs on 12 Volts Direct Current (DC). Even if the laptop fails and electricity surges through the ports, a user would get a 'shock' similar to what one suffers when touching the nodes of a car battery by mistake. This would not be life threatening. However, it's a different thing altogether if the adaptor fails. The adaptor converts and steps down the 230 Volts Alternative Current (AC) to 12 Volts DC. Once the adaptor fails, the 230 Volts would surge through the laptop, destroying the circuits and endangering anybody using it. Power would also flow through the port to which a headphone is plugged-in," an expert said.
Another electronics engineer pointed out that user manuals recommend that laptops not be used while being charged. "This not only affects the battery but also poses a risk for the users," he said.
A pall of gloom had descended on the neighbourhood in Patuli by the time Chowdhury's body reached the house on Saturday evening after the post-mortem examination. Some of his relatives, neighbours and colleagues had gathered around but nobody was in any mood to speak. "Please do not ask us anything today. It is a very difficult time for us," a relative said.
