2 labourers buried alive after earth around pit caves in

BENGALURU: Two labourers were buried alive and three others, including a civil engineer, escaped with minor injuries after earth caved in on them when they were digging trenches for laying pipes for the Koramangala-Challaghatta Valley project near

Mahadevapura

on Sunday morning.

The deceased are Sandeep, 20, and Akhilesh Yadav, 21, both from Uttar Pradesh.

Whitefield police said the incident took place around 11am at

Kaithota

near Immadihalli village. The KC Valley project is meant to supply recycled water to lakes of Kolar district. The minor irrigation department had assigned the work to Hyderabad-based company,

Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd

.

Sandeep, Akhilesh and two other labourers were digging the trench to lay pipes under the supervision of civil engineer Uma Shankar. The workers failed to notice the loose soil and continued with their work. The earth caved in even as all the five were inside the trench. Other workers on the site managed to pull Shankar and two workers out.

“We’ve taken up a criminal case under IPC section 304A (negligence causing to death) against the firm. Two persons— Subhash, vice-president of the firm and Vijay Kumar, its manager— have been taken into custody for questioning,” additional commissioner of police (east) Seemanth Kumar Singh said.

The company tasked with the work had not provided any safety measures to labourers, a police officer said. Unknown officials from the minor irrigation department have also been named in the FIR.