Six people, three of them in Bengaluru, lost their lives in separate incidents as heavy rain wreaked havoc across Karnataka on Tuesday.
Two contract labourers died while laying water pipes for a residential layout in Janana Bharathi, while another labourer slipped from a 40 ft. high rooftop of a building in Sompura industrial layout in Dabaspet.
The two labourers, identified as Ankit Kumar Sahani, 23, from Bihar, and Dev Bharath Kushwaha, 37, from Uttar Pradesh, were forced to work overtime while it was raining and drowned in the pipe even as their colleague, Triloki, made futile attempts to pull them out. Triloki, the complainant, also alleged that despite informing the project manager, the site engineer and the labour contractor, they came to the site only the next day to pump out water and pull out the bodies.
The police arrested Shiva Kumar, project manager; Harish Reddy, site engineer; Manoj Yadav, labour contractor; and Narasimharaju, H.R. Manager of Mega Engineering and Infrastructure Estate (MEIL) charging them under causing death by negligence.
Request to put off work ignored
Triloki told the police that he, along with eight others, were laying pipes near Ullal lake for the Cauvery fifth stage work by MEIL. The workers wound up work by 4 p.m. on Tuesday when it was started raining. The accused Shivakumar, Harish Reddy, and Manoj Yadav arrived at the spot and asked Triloki, Ankit, and Dev Bharath to stay back to finish wielding work till 9 p.m., and asked the others to go home.
Their request to finish the pending work the next day citing bad weather went in vain, and the they were asked to finish work by 9 p.m., Triloki alleged. Ankit and Dev Bharath then got into the pipes, while Triloki was asked to help them with the required tools. There was no ladder to climb down, and the opening of the 6 ft. deep pipe was as narrow as 2 ft.
Wile they were wielding, rain water began flooding the pipe. The two workers tried to climb up, but as there was no ladder, they drowned. Triloki tried to pull them up, but failed. He raised an alarm for help, but no one was around. He did not have a mobile phone to inform the labour contractor.
Around 9 p.m., another labourer, Pawan, came to the site, and the duo informed the accused. However, they turned up at the site only at 6 a.m. on Wednesday. Water was then pumped out and bodies extricated, Triloki told the police.
Labourer falls from rooftop
A labourer was killed after he slipped from the rooftop of a chemical factory in Dabaspet. The deceased, Sakanna, 54, a resident of Baragenahalli in Sompura, joined Organic Aromatic Chemicals only a few days ago. On Tuesday, While he was cleaning the rooftop sheets, and clearing the stagnant water, he slipped and fell from a height of 40 ft sustaining severe injuries. Sakanna, who didn’t have a safety harness, was rushed to near-by hospital where he was declared brought dead.
The Dabaspete police have registered a case of causing death by negligence against the factory owner. He is survived by his wife and two daughters aged nine and six years old.
Wall collapses on youth
A 28-year-old youth died on the spot after a school wall collapsed on him at Rangenahalli in Hassan district on Wednesday. Shivakumar, a native of M.K. Hosur in Channarayapatna, was taking shelter next to the wall when it collapsed. The villagers said the wall had been weakened following incessant rains.
2 killed in lightning strike
Two people died, while two bullocks, a cow, 19 goats and 11 sheep perished in lightning strike in different parts of Kalyana Karnataka region on Tuesday evening.
Two farmers, Parvati Nandakumar, 49, in Khatak Chincholi, Bidar district, and Bhimanna Hirekurubara, 38, in Mangihal, Yadgir district, were the deceased.
Elia, 35, a farmer in Antavaram, Kalaburagi district, was injured in a lightning strike and was rushed to hospital.
