Bengaluru, Mar 29: An 18-month-old girl and her 5-year-old brother drowned in a sump in an under-construction residential building at Kodigehalli, K.R. Puram, here yesterday.
According to the police, the young siblings, Basamma and Naveen, resided in a makeshift shed near the building with their parents, who eked out a living as construction labourers.
The children’s father, Mallappa, was out of town and their mother, Kavitha, had stepped out of the house when the incident occurred, said the police.
The incident came to light around 1.30 p.m. when Kavitha, upon returning home, found her children missing. She then checked the sump as she saw that it was open and the wooden planks had been moved. On hearing her cries for help, other construction labourers who lived in the area rushed to the spot and pulled out the children. They were taken to a hospital where both were declared brought dead.
“We suspect that the children wandered near the sump on Thursday morning, moved the wooden planks that covered it, and fell into it,” said a police officer.
The K.R. Puram police have taken up a case of unnatural death and are investigating further. The police also said that the owner of the building had given the shed to the family to stay.
Comments
Add new comment