A seven-year-old girl who was asleep on the floor inside K.R. Market premises was run over by a vehicle that arrived to unload flowers in the wee hours of Tuesday. The driver abandoned the vehicle and fled from the scene.
Shivanya was part of a group of tribals hailing from Ambur, Vellore district in Tamil Nadu who went around South India selling balloons, earrings, bangles and other children’s toys at temple car festivals. The group that included six adults, including the girl’s parents and two of her siblings, had recently come to the city to sell their wares at the Huskur Madduramma Temple Jathre held between March 24 and 28.
After the festival concluded on Monday evening, the group came to K.R. Market, also a private bus transport hub of the city, to catch a bus back home. However, it was too late and they couldn’t find any buses, forcing them to halt for the night. The group slept on the pavement behind coconut mandi on the premises of the market. Unknown to them, this pavement is also where vehicles laden with flowers come in the wee hours of the day to unload.
