A 20-year-old construction labourer was buried alive when mud from a 20-ft-high pit collapsed on him and four other workers at Katamanalluru in Avalahalli on Tuesday.
While four labourers were rescued more than an hour after the incident that took place on Tuesday afternoon, Sharana Basappa was smothered to death before emergency personnel could reach him.
The labourers were digging a basement for an under construction commercial property complex.
According to the police, who say that safety norms were not being followed, Basappa, a native of Raichur, was working at the construction site for the past six months.
Little before 12.30 p.m., Basappa left the group of labourers who were digging in the pit to fetch drinking water which was kept available just a few yards away. That was when a part of the mud wall collapsed. He was buried alive, say eyewitnesses.
Security personnel at the site alerted the police and the fire control room who arrived at the spot at around 12.50 p.m.
“As it had been raining for the past two days, the soil was loose, which caused the cave-in. The mud that collapsed on Basappa was thick thus delaying the rescue operation,” a senior police officer said.
It took four fire tenders and a team of police nearly an hour to get to Basappa. He was shifted to a private hospital where the doctors declared him brought dead.
According to the police, the construction site belongs to the Brigade Group.
The Avalahalli police have taken up a case under Section 304 and the site engineer has been summoned for questioning. “Inquiries with the construction labourers revealed that the site did not have any retention wall. Construction labourers had not been provided with safety gears,” a senior officer said.
Meanwhile, a firm handling public relations for the Brigade Group said that while the site belonged to the company, the work was being carried out by a contract firm. “Whatever happens in the work site is the responsibility of the contractor,” said the official.
