Two labourers were buried alive under a heap of mud while digging a trench to lay a pipeline at Immadihalli in Whitefield on Sunday.
The deceased have been identified as Sandeep, 19, and Akhilesh, 24, who hailed from Uttar Pradesh.
According to the police, they were working on a pipeline for the Koramangala–Challaghatta valley in city as part of a project to supply treated sewage to tanks in Kolar district.
Sandeep and Akhilesh along with a few other labourers were digging the trench to lay the pipes while Umashankar, the site engineer, was supervising them. Around 11 a.m., a heap of mud that had been piled up on either side of the trench collapsed.
“Some of the labourers jumped into the trench and were able to rescue Umashankar and two other workers, but Sandeep and Akhilesh had suffocated by the time they were pulled out,” a senior police officer said.
The police have arrested Subhash, vice-president of Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd., the company that was carrying out the work. “He has been charged with death due to negligence. The company had few safety measures in place,” a senior police officer said.
