A family outing at Lalbagh Botanical Garden turned tragic when a six-year-old boy died after a stone sculpture fell on him on Monday afternoon.
The deceased, Vikram Kumar, had gone to Lalbagh with his three cousins and aunt. Around 3 p.m., he stood beside an assembled sculpture, comprising a large polished granite placed on top of a four-feet-tall pillar, in the Bonsai Garden. But as he leaned on the pillar, the granite fell on him.
Bleeding in the head, he was taken to a nearby hospital where doctors declared him dead. The body was shifted to KIMS on Lalbagh Road where after a post-mortem, the family donated his organs.
Vikram was the only son of N. Kumar — who works in a powerloom at Lakshminarayanapuram — and Revathi, a homemaker. They live in Srirampura as part of a 10-member joint family. Relatives said that, at least once a week, the four children are taken out to parks and gardens. The entire family had returned from a trip to their native place near Vellore in Tamil Nadu. On Monday, the children were getting restless and hence, were taken for an outing to Lalbagh.
“He is a very outgoing boy and wanted his picture by the sculpture,” said Velu Kumar, Vikram’s uncle. His children Uday (12) and Rakshith (6) had accompanied his sister Eshwari and her daughter Mithali to the park, along with Vikram.
Siddapura police have filed a case of Unnatural Death Record (UDR). They said that based on the complaint, the possibility of negligence will be looked into.
The security personnel at Lalbagh brushed aside allegations of negligence, saying that boy was attempting to climb the sculpture despite warnings against doing so.
Second tragedy in city landmark
On August 15, 2015, a seven-year-old child died at Lalbagh. Vaishnavi was attacked by a swarm of bees when she was visiting the garden with her parents during the popular Independence Day flower show. She later succumbed to her injuries at a hospital.
